Thick Scales, Warm Heart
by freeda91
Summary: The dragons have invaded Ponyville and war has been declared between the two species! With the dragons controlling all of Ponyvile fetching the elements of harmony from Canterlot is impossible, so the mane six are forced to fight back however they can. Will Spike help his friends defend themselves, or will he accept the invitation to rule with the dragons? some S/R.
1. The Flower

**Thick Scales, Warm Heart**

_The Flower_

It was a sunny and warm day in Ponyville, not a single cloud in sight as the weather patrol accomplished their duties; rain was scheduled for further in the week. The morning sun was so bright, warm and beautiful, it matched the description of a perfect day; such a good one that everypony was busy enjoying it. Either working or just relaxing. Everyone except one little dragon who, as he was still a baby, needed a longer and a deeper sleep; despite the fact that he wasn't a child anymore in pony years. However, his dreamy dreams were interrupted by the loud thump of a huge encyclopedia which was dropped right next to his ears, making him jump from the shock as he let a little shriek. Who other to wake him up when he overslept like this than Twilight?

"That wasn't very nice of you Twilight" the shocked dragon said as soon as he could comprehend the situation; it wasn't so hard at all, there was Twilight laughing at her little prank and the big encyclopedia only her magic could lift.

"Well sorry" she said, smirking "but it was the only thing I could think of, I've been trying to wake you for a while now. Do you have any idea what time it is?" this time she was more controlled.

"Uh, half past seven?" the sleepy dragon answered just for answering; he didn't have time to think about that while rubbing his eyes.

"Not even close" Was his friend's answer "it's eleven o' clock. You were supposed to help me reshelf the books three hours ago!"

"Didn't we do that like, yesterday?" Spike asked, it felt ridiculous to do so, that often.

"What do you mean?" she asked back frowning a little "I do it every day before you even wake up; it's just that sometimes I get busy studying and need your help with it."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry Twi." The dragon apologized. " I bet you've already finished anyways"

"Oh, I did" replied the purple pony "That is why I woke you up like that" she laughed slightly. "Anyways…" Twilight continued "Do you remember who else you had to help today? Someone you were supposed to meet in about twenty minutes?" The purple pony added as she tilted her head slightly to the left as if not to wink or gently hitting him on the shoulder.

"That's right!" Spike realized "I am supposed to help Rarity with some errands!" the Dragon rushed downstairs but was stopped by Twilight's levitation spell.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" She asked; pulling out a small beautifully decorated gift box Spike suddenly recognized and blushed "Even though we are having her party tonight, I think I'd be sweet of you to be the first one to give her a gift" Twilight gave Spike a wink.

"How did you find it? It took me a while to find the perfect hiding spot." The dragon complained.

"It was rather easy" she quickly answered; Spike frustrated about it "next time try not to hide it in the romance section." Spike laughed shyly.

"Thanks for scaring the heck out of me in order to wake me up in time Twi" Spike said before hurrying to Rarity's; the confused pony wasn't sure if he had been either honest, or ironic, or both. So instead of letting it bother her, she rolled her eyes and carried on with her studies; she was looking into a book about Phoenixes. Apparently, they had magical properties like her.

She wondered though, what kind of magic properties. Were they able to make spells? Could they heal themselves? Did they reborn endlessly? Two of this questions she already had answers; she did know phoenixes were inmortal as they regenerated themselves from their ashes. But there was a lot more in it, a book given to her by Zecora specified a lot of potions for different uses, mostly medicinal, required either a phoenix feather or tear.

"I need to get Spike to let me use Pewee" she told herself. Still amazed by the uncountable number of benefits phoenix possessed; so lucky Spike owned one.

The little dragon rushed through Ponyville at full speed he almost crashed many times. People were not as fond of him as before, as he had destroyed the town already once when he rampaged into a giant monster; but he was eager to make up for it with everyone. Some did forgive him, but others were not so easy to apologize to.

"Hey Spike" Pinkie Pie greeted him by jumping along with him as he didn't stop at all. "What's with the rush?" she asked then answered herself "Are you running from someone? Who is it? Is it a mare? Tell me who she is!" The earth pony had asked all these questions within 3 seconds! A new personal record for herself. Spike rolled his eyes and sighed but did not answer; not because he didn't want to, but he hardly had any air in his lungs for answering as he was running as If it was a marathon.

Finally Spike got to the Carousel Boutique. He was panting and gasping for air; he couldn't talk to Rarity like that so he decided to take some breath, as well as getting Pinkie Pie out of there since he wanted to be as alone with Rarity as he could; apart from Pinkie Pie being known not only for her party fanaticism but for her sudden intromissions. But heavens Pinkie Pie was hard to get off one's shoulders! So he decided to speak with truth, after all he did tell her his secret. On the other hand, Pinkie had a loose mouth.

"If I answer, will you keep it a secret?" the dragon asked a bit concerned.

"If you're gonna tell me that you came here to help Rarity with some errands on her birthday and brought her gift this early so just that you could have a private moment for her to thank you and then compliment her all day, then don't worry! I already made a Pinkie promise before. Remember?" Spike's jaw dropped to its limit as he stared in awe.

"How did you?" He tried to ask, but couldn't think of a correct question "Now your pinkie sense foresees answers or what?" He finally asked.

"Oh, don't be silly" the smiling pony answered taping his head "It was just obvious."

There was a gap of silence between them, and spike gestured Pinkie to leave him alone by clearing his throat. She didn't get it, instead she just kept smiling at him. After a second time she finally got it. "Well I'd better give the two of you some privacy" she gave Spike a wink and left hopping and humming.

Spike took a deep sigh, got enough courage and knocked at the door; hiding his present on his back so he could surprise her. He had never been so nervous in his entire life; he had practiced what he was to tell her the entire night, which was the reason he had over-over slept. He repeated those words he had learned by heart again and again, until he heard Rarity's beautiful voice saying 'Coming'. And as soon as she opened the door and saw him, those words he had memorized to the perfection were automatically deleted from his mind; burned to ashes. It happened every time Rarity was around and he hated it.

"Oh why, if it's my little Spikey-Wikey" the white unicorn sweetly said playing with Spike's top scales (the one's that resemble his hair) as she opened the door for him as he went in. Hopefully for Spike she hadn't seen the present, as she was obviously busy with all the preparations. "You've arrived just in time, darling. I was wondering if you could possibly help me not to get my hands…uh, dirty".

Spike instantly understood she wanted him to help cleaning; everyone knew rarity's intolerance of dirt, trash, and nasty things. "Sure Rarity; but first I wanted to wish you a happy birthday!" this last part was practically happily shouted as he revealed the wrapped box.

"Oh, Spikey" Rarity said with modesty while unwrapping it with her magic, blushing a little. "You shouldn't have bothered".

"I surely had to" Spike said slowly, paying attention at how she unwrapped the gift; his plan was to talk in perfect synchronization with rarity's gaze at the true present. She levitated a perfectly carved sapphire rose making her gasp in disbelief as it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The flower was obviously carved by the little dragon's claws; there was just no way a pony could have possibly done it without breaking it as it needed something really hard or sharp. They could only shape a few things, like the fire ruby she also had from the same dragon. Spike then continued "Because there's no diamond, as beautiful as it can be that could possibly match this gorgeous flower." Rarity obviously caught the message.

The unicorn blushed fiercely as her heart skipped a couple of beats, and in her white coat it was impossible to hide. She stared into Spike's green eyes and suddenly felt hypnotized; she already knew his feelings for her, but she wasn't sure about hers. Her stare also made the dragon blush pretty as much as her. Only he was rather used to doing so.

"It-it is, beautiful" Rarity stuttered; getting closer to him without even noticing, Spike's body moved on its own as well.

"It's not even half as pretty as you are" the dragon said out of the blue. Blushing as he never did, he realized he had said something he dreamt about but had hardly found the courage in the real world the express it. He was going to put a claw on his mouth to stop talking, but he was still staring into her eyes. She blushed as well, as she had dreamt of the colt who would tell her such beautiful words. It was now in front of her; despite the fact that he wasn't exactly… a colt.

"You-you really think so?" she double checked getting even closer; they were inches away now.

"But of course, my dear" Spike answered holding her hoof; she didn't have anything against it. "Because you know, I-I have always…loved you" He had finally admitted it! For the second time as he recalled the time when they were both falling to their deaths. He got a feeling; a weird feeling as if he was jumping off a cliff, taking a leap of faith.

"Oh, Spike" a tear began to cover her cheek.

The dragon's expression suddenly dropped; for a moment there was nothing to cushion the fall. He knew what she would think about their relationship "I know, you're a pony, I'm a dragon, it could never…" He was sadly telling himself when he was rudely cut off.

"Spike!" Rarity loudly said making him face her as she began leaning in. Spike's heart stopped for a second and he leaned too. They were inches closer and closer every moment; Spike now saw his leap of faith had given him wings. She did feel the same way, and they were about to kiss! As for rarity, both the dragon's speech and her own actions had taken her for surprise, but given it a moment of though, she wanted to do it. As they leaned closer to the other's lips they closed her eyes slowly when it finally happened…

"**SURPRISE!**" the pink party-lover pony yelled at full lung power getting between them. Throwing confetti above their heads and putting a party hat on both their heads. Spike's shock that morning was nothing compared to this one, Rarity as well made a small screech; hopefully she didn't lose control over her levitating spell or the flower would have crashed on the floor into millions of pieces. They both glared at Pinkie. (A/N: And you actually though I was gonna make it this easy… it's just way too soon. )

"I decided to come here to help with decorations for the party" She tried to sound innocent "Did I do something bad?" She asked with a saddened face as soon as she saw their friends' expressions. "Oh well, let's not waste any more time!" Pinkie stated and from her 'party saddlebags' took out dozens of cakes and cookies, colored papers, more confetti, hats, and even a huge stereo. The clowns and the mini car classic trick was plagiarized into her saddlebags!

"Very, very well then" Rarity stuttered; she needed to say something in order to wake up from all that had happened as their privacy was not respected and the mood was lost. "We'd better get working".

"Yeah…"Spike sighed wooing with his arms, of course not really meaning it "let's get started…"

* * *

As the night fell, its crescent quarter moon shining, Rarity's birthday party was about to start. Spike and Twilight were already at her front door; the purple pony was carrying a gift in her saddlebag, which was, guessed without a second though by Spike, a book. Spike on the other hand, didn't need to bring another gift. He had already given her the prettiest sapphire flower she had ever seen, and helped her with the decorations; she had insisted on giving him something in return, another gemstone or somewhat. He politely rejected those gifts as his only desire was to be alone with her again, to try again; without pink ponies interrupting. That was why he had asked Twilight to try and keep Pinkie Pie away from them whenever they were in private. If they were, of course.

"I don't think she'll be falling head over heels for you just for whatever gift you could have given her" Twilight said rolling her eyes. The dragon didn't answer, he wouldn't do it until whatever was to happen, happened; because of this, and the fact that a gentleman must know when to keep silence, he hadn't told her what… almost happened. "Are you all right?" Twilight asked her assistant with a concerned look on her face "You've been awfully quiet since you came back from Rarity's. All you told me was that you were going to shower and nothing ever since."

"It's just… I'm nervous, excited… confused" He knew he shouldn't have said the last part, but he had already done so, so he wouldn't let it bug him.

"Confused?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. Having in mind that Spike knew Rarity was unattainable for him, he always intended to change her mind. She deducted then, the possibility that Rarity had felt something, and it happened just then! That would explain his insecurity.

"She…"Twilight began to state a question "Did she tell you something special?"

"No…" was the dragon's muted answer.

"Oh, I'm sor…" Twilight was about to apologize when she was cut off.

"We were about to kiss!" Spike couldn't hold it any longer; he was as happy as if they had already kissed. What was not to be happy about; after all his attempts, all his work, finally they all were fruitful. Only he hadn't tasted the fruit yet.

Twilight was left open-mouthed as she didn't have anything, anything at all that would come to her mind as an answer, addition, comment or anything of the sort. Not only was she surprised about the fact of her brother would kiss one of her best friends, but was proud of her little brother; he had learnt the lesson that with work and perseverance everything was possible. Even Twilight had her doubts about him.

"I'm happy for you Spike" Twilight answered once the shock vanished. Her face wasn't the happiest of all either. Then she smiled normally "After all your hard work and enthusiasm, you deserve it."

"Thanks Twi" Spike said. "I'm happy you know, and support me."

"Of course I will" Twilight added hugging him with one hoof. "Your big sister will tame that wild, pink pony." They both laughed as someone opened the door; it wasn't a surprise it wasn't Rarity, as they didn't think they'd be the first ones to attend. Someone had to open the door for the guests while Rarity took her time preparing herself.

"Well hello Twilight" Greeted the earth pony allowing them to pass "Miss perfection here is…"

"We know" they both said in unison, Applejack chuckled.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for Pinkie Pie being here, ah'd have ended up waiting at the door until she made her mind on which dress to wear"

"But there's no need to wear a fancy dress tonight; were merely having a small party." Twilight pointed out.

"Well, try to convince Rarity" Applejack answered.

Twilight wanted to add something, but she couldn't think of an argument. "Touche" She finally said admitting defeat.

Applejack then turned to Spike "Nice work on that flower, sugarcube" she said hitting him softly on the shoulder.

"Flower?" Twilight raised an eyebrow "What flower?" she asked.

"It's just a sweet, and delicious; yet precious, sapphire flower I carved from a sapphire for her. That was my birthday present" Answered Spike, looking away.

"Aww, how sweet of you Spike" Twilight awed rubbing his cheeks with her hooves toying with him. "Your dragon claws are developing and becoming sharper. You're growing up…the good way!" She added at last, specifying he wasn't becoming a monster again.

After a few minutes everypony had arrived, first Rainbow Dash, last Fluttershy; only that Rarity was still in her room. Not too long however, until she opened it and elegantly stepped in the sitting room. She wasn't wearing a dress, but she was wearing a fancy hat; the one she wore when she went strolling in Canterlot. After all, she had only taken her time for making her mind whether to dress formal or informal; even though the 95 percent of the times she was formal, she decided she wanted something simplier. Of course not losing her style in any way.

Since Rarity had taken so much time Applejack, with the help of Spike, had the time to prepare dinner, or rather the snacks they were going to eat. Applelised, though. Spike was very useful for cooking, as he was a live oven; his flame cooked things almost instantly as if it was magic. By the time Rarity showed up, they had already baked 2 apple pies, caramel covered apples, fried hay with apple syrup, and apple milkshake. This last one wasn't one of her best creations.

One hundred and twenty seven milliseconds after Rarity's appearance Pinkie Pie, who was a little 'happy' from dinking so much Applejack's cider, fired her party cannon and the music boomed. She was the only one dancing though, and speaking even more loosely than usual.

"Maybe you shouldn't have brought so much cider, Applejack" Chuckled Rainbow Dash, looking at the party animal that had become of Pinkie Pie.

"Maybe ah shouldn't have told her ah had" Was Applejack's answer, inspecting the last of the barrel in order to retrieve any more only to find it completely empty.

Despite the fact that Pinkie Pie was the definition of wild, she was contagious, as the more she danced, the more their friends wanted to join her. Before they knew it, Rainbow Dash was flying-dancing (even though she still danced as if she was on the ground) Fluttershy trying to copy her steps, Twilight dancing awkwardly as she was new to it, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie dancing a country duet, professionally. Everyone else was in the kitchen table, where the sound was a little lower so they could talk…by everyone else I mean Spike and Rarity.

The dragon and the unicorn sat across each other, the uncomfortable silence building up in the area. They'd look away whenever their eyes made contact, and blush slightly. None of them wanted to stay silent, but they didn't want to be the first one to talk either. Spike had no idea of how to break the last wall of ice that separated him from total happiness, but he had to try at least commenting about the party.

"So…"He began "what a party" Spike quickly said.

"Oh, yes. Yes it is…So good" Rarity's voice this time sounded sad. Spike noticed.

"Is there anything wrong Rarity?" Spike asked.

Rarity closed her eyes for a couple of seconds and took a deep sigh. Then she proceeded to answer: "It is about this morning" Spike suddenly felt adrenaline running inside him "When we almost…you know" She said avoiding some words.

"Yes?" Spike asked, he remembered that time as if he was living it again. Not even trying could he ever forget it.

"I'm afraid to say that it was the heat of the moment Spike" Her words dropped Spike's smile. "Not that I don't like you, but I think it was a little soon for me to do that."

"So you're saying that even though you like me back, you just need some time to think things through?" The dragon deducted; not as unhappy as he expected to hear her reject.

"Does that bother you?" Rarity asked, she wanted to be careful enough not to break his young dragon heart.

"You admitted you like me back, so…" Spike answered happily. "I'd wait an eternity just for you my love" Spike said at last sounding as gentle as he could. The results were positive, as Rarity blushed and nodded in relief and agreement.

They were both staring at each other's eyes now, but this time they were happy; they both loved each other back, all Rarity needed was to sleep on things, but she was certain that she liked him. Just before they were about to leave the table to dance, they heard a sneeze close by. They turned around 45 degrees and glared at the other five ponies who were staring at them, now faking a small laugh; Pinkie Pie cleaning her nose.

"Twilight!" Spike yelled angrily, hurt by her sister breaking her promise.

"We weren't interrupting" She said in her defense. Spike calmed down. "We were just…curious" she faked a smile. Spike frowned as well as rarity, waiting for a real explanation or an apology. "We're sorry" they all said in unison.

Rarity sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Well, I suppose it is time for…" She pointed at Pinkie with her hoof. The Pink Pony noticed this and realized what she had to shout.

"CAKE!" Everyone had their ears hurt with that Pinkie announcement. Out of nowhere, Pinkie brought a cake that had written 'Happy birthday Rarity' with caramel on the top. The main covering was white, and the borders were purple sugar; a design fitting for Rarity.

Pinkie Pie quickly sliced seven pieces and gave them to her friends; obviously starting for Rarity as she was the birthday one, then Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and last Spike. Once they all got their slice, Pinkie Pie jumped on the rest of the cake nearly swallowing all of it in one chomp.

"Oh, my" Rarity gasped "It is delicious!" She said, once she tasted the blueberry sauce chocolate cake with bits of hazelnut "The hazelnut final touch is unique". They all nodded in agreement except for Spike; he was about to give his slice the first try when he heard Rarity say the word 'hazelnut'; immediately, Spike left his cake on the table.

Pinkie Pie noticed this and though Spike didn't like blueberry. If that was it, it was because he had never eaten her cake before. "Don't be silly Spike, you'll like the blueberry night" that was the name she had given to the cake. She quickly grabbed the slice and headed rapidly to Spike.

"You don't get it Pinkie" Spike tried to argue, but it was useless; Pinkie Pie had already snuck the whole slice in his mouth. Despite the fact that Spike spitted it up instantly, it was already too late…

"Pinkie Pie, no!" Twilight cried "Spike's really allergic to hazelnut" she said "and do you know what happens when a dragon is allergic to something?" she added. Pinkie faked a laugh and was now looking guilty at Spike.

The little dragon scratched his throat, and suddenly he began to cough. First it was a light and normal cough; but later it became a heavy, fire cough! They all yelled in surprise as the first flame almost burns them. Spike tried as hard as he could to cover his coughing with his hand, totally useless. After several fire coughs that left some black marks on the floor as he tried to prevent the fire from reaching his friends, the inevitable came; Spike started gasping air and he already knew what that would mean, a sneeze.

With a fire powered sneeze, and given the small size he possessed and his light weight, he flew out of the house through the window, breaking it. Not only had he destroyed Rarity's window and left burn marks on her floor, but was still coughing fire; which inevitably incinerated a couple of trees; this fire then expanded, causing a big fire.

"Quick, Rainbow Dash" Twilight demanded her friend "Bring us a rain cloud!" Her thinking was good and fast. The rainbow manned Pegasus flew high in the sky and in less than a minute she had come back with a thundercloud; close enough to Twilight's request. The Pegasus then placed the cloud over the burning trees and with a couple of taps, the rain fell. Luckily enough, Spike's fire was reduced to nothing in the rain, and his cough became a normal one once again; and in one more minute, he stopped coughing at all.

"I'm sorry" Spike apologized once he saw the entire ruckus he had caused; many ponies, friends and not, had gathered there and were glaring at him as it was obvious who had caused the fire.

"What are you apologizing for Spike?" Pinkie Pie shyly commented "it was my fault" the six ponies smiled at him recomfortingly. He smiled as well.

All's well ends well; except for the intrusion of a who-cares pony, who just flied down to the dragon, glaring and growling. "Are you crazy, dragon!" His six friends glared down at the rude Pegasus.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" he was cut off by many other ponies around: _'He destroyed those poor trees', 'poor trees? He could have set on fire the whole town!', 'that's why dragons are wild, and they belong to the wild!', 'He is a menace to all of us, they should get rid of it!'_. Those were the comments that Spike heard and had a major relevance for him. Tears began to fall down through his cheeks; the shivering cold, inner-fire extinguisher tears, of a baby dragon. He pushed the Pegasus who had insulted him first away and ran all the way out of the scene; the night that was supposed to be the most unforgettable, ended up being the worst, unforgettable night.

* * *

**Well that's all for my first chapter; I'm sorry it's this long, i didn't intend it to be so, but i just kept writing and writing and blablabla. i hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i did writing it. I'd love your reviews, specially when they're lots. Also, for my fellow english readers, my mothertounge is spanish and i'm studying to sit for the CAE, so i'd really like you to include correctios (if there is something to correct) in your reviews.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Freeda91**


	2. The Dragon Treaty

**The Dragon Treaty**

It had been a tough night for the little dragon who had been slightly rejected by Rarity and harshly insulted by half Ponyville. Everypony thought of him as a menace, a giant, rampaging dragon. The painful memories of him destroying the town in his greedy-grown state brought chaos into his mind. It was torture for a child to have done something like that; then again, it was normal…if he was between dragons.

The sheets of his bed were roughly removed by Twilight's magic, reveling a sobbing dragon who had suffered something nopony could experience, or imagine; perhaps Zecora would know that feeling, but that was beside the point. Twilight wasn't sure how to encourage him, but she couldn't just let him like that; he needed his sister the most right now. Apart from the wet sheets and pillow, she noticed what was nearly half a dozen sapphires around Spike, shaped like roses! However, they were all broken or shaped incorrectly; the one that Spike was holding in his hand was the most accurate one. The purple pony then realized those were Spike's first attempts of what was Rarity's birthday present.

"Mind if I stay beside you?" Twilight tried to sound as calm and kind as possible. "You seem to be in need of sisterly love".

"No Twilight!" He answered standing up, now angry and between sobs. "Didn't you see what happened yesterday?" He asked then turned back "Or on my birthday…" Spike had those images way too fresh for his comfort.

"Oh, come on Spike" She replied rolling her eyes "We have already forgotten you for that. Besides it's not even your fault what happened yesterday"

"Apparently," Spike added slowly "For everypony, I'm a dangerous creature who should be expelled from Equestria."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Twilight forced him to face her back with her magic; her tone was higher now. "You're a sweet, kind and controlled dragon that was technically raised by princess Celestia! You should understand that if she had had a tiny bit of knowledge you'd become a 'dangerous creature' that'd create panic all over Equestria, she would have…" Twilight noticed she was being a little harsh and what she was going to say was a lot more. So she left it right there.

"Thanks for trying Twi" Spike sighed and lay back on his bed "But I'd rather call it a night. The sooner it ends the better." This last sentence was very cold, even for… a dragon.

The lavender unicorn bit her lip, and agreed that there was nothing she could do to help him. If he wanted to be left alone with his feelings, then so shall he. However, he still needed her by his side; which was unavoidable due to their beds being next to each other's. As Spike curled into a ball, grabbing the same sapphire flower as before, Twilight covered him with his blanket and proceeded to her own bed; it was just a matter of time before he'd open up his heart and decide to move on with his happy life. After all, the night did have something good; something that made it up for the humiliation and hate of all ponies in the town; Rarity did say she liked him back. A little smile formed through his watered face, Twilight noticed this and smiled too.

As dawn came and the sun began to rise, the sleepy and yawning unicorn noticed Spike had left his bed. She quickly stood up and looked around in order to find him. It wasn't so much work doing so, since he was sitting by the window; staring at the morning sun. The purple pony sat beside him and greeted him; the dragon, however, didn't answer back. It was easily noticeable that Spike hadn't cooled down just yet, not completely, but he showed much more progress than some couple of hours before, when he was in misery.

"Twilight" Spike spoke out of the blue, the pony actually though he'd be silent forever. "I've been wondering, ever since you brought up Celestia knowing I wasn't a menace" the dragon continued "How come I'm the only dragon I have seen in Ponyville, or even Canterlot?" he finally asked "as far as I know, hatching a dragon egg is an entrance exam for unicorns. And lots of unicorns pass it". Spike felt silent once again and turned to face twilight. His eyes were red of crying and it was obvious he hadn't had the chance to rest in the entire night.

"I, um…"Twilight stuttered her ears dropped "I actually don't know" she answered what Spike feared she would and as in response he sighed. "Now that you mention it I have no idea, but it's nothing a well written letter to the princess won't answer" She said cheerfully trying to get his mood liven up.

"I guess so" Spike sighed, then as Twilight levitated a scroll and a quill in front of him, he began to write. After a minute and a half, the dragon had finished and was standing up, opening the window and preparing himself for his teletransportation fire-spell. The flame, however, was considerably small and was barely the enough for the letter to be delivered. As the magic ashes flew away, the dragon took a deep breath and walked downstairs; where Twilight was waiting for him with breakfast.

There wasn't much that picked his interest, except for a big bowl of shattered quartz. It wasn't one of his favorite flavors, but it was better than coal. The pony had decided to make him a mineral based breakfast in order to cheering him up, she though a delicious meal (in dragon terms) would make him feel happier. Spike sat on the table and hesitated to eat; however, when his stomach growled, something Twilight noticed and was now laughing about, he gave up on it and bolted down his 'cereal'.

"Hey, slow it down!" Twilight yelled "You're gonna throw it all up".

The dragon didn't listen to her; he was to satisfied with his quartz which, despite being too sour, was a delight when combined with milk and a little of gold shattering as a sweetener. Even though he wasn't eating all that fast, he grew a tickling sensation in his throat and realized he was going to either burp or throw up. He ended up burping all the cereal and milk, as well as a scroll and a small flame. Twilight noticed this and once she levitated the scroll from the floor, she glanced at the disaster Spike had caused throwing up half his bowl and frowned at Spike.

"Um… excuse me" the dragon blushed.

Twilight unrolled the parchment and read it aloud for Spike "Dear Spike, I knew this day would arrive sooner or later, but as you were enjoying yourself with your happy life, I didn't want to induce you the idea of being a dragon as something bad, indeed I wanted you to be a great citizen of our land of Equestria. As for your answers, I will send you something that will satisfy them". Twilight and Spike both raised their eyebrows; understanding half the message, Twilight even less since she didn't know all of Spike's questions. Before Spike could ask something, he crouched as he felt a pain in his stomach and burped an entire book! This came as a total surprise for both. Twilight lifted the book from the floor and read its partially illegible tittle which named the book 'The Dragon Treaty'.

"The dragon treaty?" Twilight asked herself, her interest attracted to the book almost as much as Spike's.

"It's really long!" Spike shouted once he saw the book's thickness "It'll take a month to finish, even for you"

"I don't think so Spike" Twilight answered, and not for being too confident of herself "There's a summary at the beginning and then there's the complete book for you to read if you want to".

"Uh…I'll think about it" Spike faked a cough "Well, let's read that summary then" He added.

"Very well" The unicorn laughed.

_The Dragon Treaty_

_Long ago, not much after the foundation of Equestria, the land was conquered by chaos. All species from all kind of places were fighting over territory and food. The most important species in this case were the dragons, and the ponies. Other species from other regions such as hippocampus, who belonged to the deep oceans and other non-thinking creatures; __many of which are now though to be extinct._

_Let's focus on the main point of our story; the dragons and the ponies were constantly in war, and despite the fact that dragons were powerful and mighty, they were very few in number as their species take thousands of years to fully grow. Apart from that, the ponies possessed very well organized forces including the Pegasus, unicorns and alicorns; these last ones resulted in a strange mixture between the others, wings beginning their growth during puberty, and were not part of the triple court of the moment, now they scarce to the point they're on danger of extinction. Earth ponies weren't efficient against these magnificent beasts so they took shelter in castles and were armed with bows and swords to defend these lands. To sum it up, these two species were in constant conflict with each other, but this chaos origined from the god of chaos itself._

_One day, like any other, a couple of young unicorn fillies sisters were exploring the woods looking for food; as these times were of war, ponies supplies were scarce and finding food was primordial for every day's life. As farmlands were constantly the main battlefields, food production had suffered a great fall. The two fillies came across an injured dragoness, by a pony assault; her eggs broken. All except one. Despite feeling an incommensurable hate for ponies, the dragoness did not attack the fillies. Instead, she asked them to carry on her last wish before her death, to make happy a dragon who was attacked by the unfairenesses of life._

_The two fillies first hesitated to answer to the scary beast, however, the older one accepted to carry on her request. The dragoness, when she saw she was an unicorn, told her that the egg would not hatch unless it was warmth with the intensity of intense flames. A pony could never be able to achieve that, but the dragoness added that despite this fact, there was a slim chance that magic could probably work too. However, it had to be a magic powerful enough to crack the egg and warmth the baby dragon with the intensity needed. After its speech and blessing, the dragoness passed away.-Dragon egg hatching is nowadays known as a test for young unicorns to prove their magic abilities; more details are to be described in the full story-._

_Many years had spent both fillies, the oldest one now a teenage pony, practicing, training and most importantly, protecting the egg of all dangers. The sisters though that perhaps this dragon could bring peace between species once it was born, so it was primordial to make sure it would hatch. As their parents fell victims of the war, the two now alone ponies had to take care of the egg and themselves. Luckily enough, the years of practice weren't fruitless, as the oldest sister began to master her unicorn powers as well as her wings grew up. She discovered by the age of 14 that she was an alicorn of incredible power. The time had come for them to try and hatch the egg._

_The young pony focused all her magic in the egg, making sure to warmth it and not to just crack it. Also it had to warmth the dragon, not the shelter as it would cook it. These proved harder than what it seemed, but then she finally hatched it. The baby dragon, white scaled with bright turquoise eyes, top scales and tail; colors similar to the ones of the mare, now lay on the ground. However, he was not crying, he was not moving, he was not living. Disappointed, the pony doubled her efforts and in a powerful blast of magic the baby dragon not only opened his eyes and cried, but because of the intensity of her magic, the dragon grew to almost its full size. It was only temporary however, as the pony was having an overload of magic. As soon as she cooled down, the baby dragon returned to his normal size and was now alive._

_While the dragon was still a baby, and was being carefully baby sited by the youngest pony, the oldest one found another egg, and once again she performed her spell. However, the spell wouldn't work this time. Sure she had cracked the egg and the baby lay on the ground, lifeless and colorless, and as much as the pony tried, and even with the overload of magic power, the dragon wouldn't be affected. After several tries, the winged Pegasus sadly gave up. Her sister, on the other hand, decided to give it a try on her own, and in the same way as in the first time, the dragon lived; his colors determined by the ones of the one who gave him life: Black and blue as the night. The youngest sister was now 12 and had her own wings too. They both tried with a third egg, but there was no result; they came to the conclusion that the spell only worked once per pony. The dragons then were brought up as brothers, and as the mares had predicted during their childhood, these two dragons had brought peace into the world. They'd bring the dragons to their senses and the mares did the same with their own kind. The mares became queens of their kind and the dragons became kings of theirs._

_However, peace couldn't be completely achieved until the god of chaos had been stopped. Unfortunately nopony knew how to defeat him; neither did the dragons. When the situation demanded it the most, the two ponies were revealed to possess magical qualities apart from normal magic. The oldest Pony was loyal and honest; the youngest one was kind and generous; both had learned the power of laughter when facing fears and both possessed a spark of magic. They were the holders of the elements of harmony._

_The god of chaos had consumed the land into chaos once again, and to harden things up, the oldest dragon was hypnotized by chaos and, accompanied by his followers, he fought his younger brother. The youngest one, because he loved his brother, couldn't hurt him and in the end, the older brother consumed by chaos and hatred, left deep injuries on his brother before he was fought back by the mares. The dragon couldn't be defeated with simple magic; he was ten times stronger than normal dragons even though their adulthood size was not much taller than a stallion. In order to bring him back to his senses, the sisters used the newly discovered elements of harmony against their 'son'. The harmony couldn't be returned to him, and they didn't know the reason. Even though it hurt them to do it, they managed to turn him into stone, and he now rests for eternity. However, fearing that his brother might break free and the mares wouldn't be within the living anymore, the younger dragon bathed the mares with the magical fire of his vitality and gave them the 'curse' of immortality. I refer it as a curse because it is painful and unavoidable for them now, to witness the loss of their loved ones, again and again. The mane of the oldest one became multicolored and bright as the day; the one of the youngest one became shiny blue, as the night sky._

_It was decreed then, that the dragons would live within the mountains past the limits of Equestria; since there was a huge discovery of minerals there, which were the dragon's main aliment. Ponies were forbidden to do minery there and this was known as the 'Dragon Treaty'. Although because of the conflict between the dragons their kind showed contempt for the ponies, they hesitated to the idea of another war; peace came when the mares imprisoned the god of chaos into a statue with the help of the elements of harmony. Even though the beast was sealed into slumber, it had left a curse on the younger mare, poisoning her heart into chaos. The older sister had no choice, as only half of the elements of harmony wasn't enough to turn her sister back to normal, to imprison her…in the moon.__**(A/N: if you haven't guessed by now these mares are Celestia and Luna…DUH)**__._

As Spike and Twilight finished reading the summary of the complex book, the light of the sun was leaving. Despite being just a summary, it had taken them all morning. The pony stretched herself as well as Spike and both gave a tired yawn, they noticed how late it was and that they hadn't had lunch at all.

"I can't believe your stomach didn't interrupt us" Twilight joked getting a cupcake from the fridge and levitating one to Spike.

"It's just that the story was really intriguing" the dragon answered catching the cupcake, his stomach began to growl now. "I understand a little more why I'm the only dragon in this society, but I'm far from satisfied. If princess Celestia wrote that book then she knows how to explain me why no one else did that spell she did".

"She did mention why, Spike" The Pony protested "It had to be a very powerful magic to give life to the hatchling, as I did. As far as we know, I'm the first one who did so. But if you're still insecure, we can ask her later". Twilight then added "Now I understand why she chose me to be her apprentice, she knew I'd be the new holder of the elements and when she saw you destroying the roof, she realized it was me". It made sense, since the elements of harmony were based on friendship, and Celestia and Luna were painfully away from each other, their harmony had ended; and seeing such a powerful spell as Twilight's, she knew she'd hold the spark of magic.

"I'd really like to" Spike finally commented. Twilight was happy to see how his mood had changed from the morning, and only with the help of a good story. The pain in him wasn't reflected in his face; if he was hiding his feelings he was doing a good job, but since she knew him so well, she knew he was happy.

"Hey Twi" the dragon asked sniffing around "Don't you smell something…burning?"

"Oh, my Celestia!" Twilight cried as she witnessed what was happening outside from the window; at first it just seemed to be the colors of the sunset, but she noticed after a glance at the clock and a deeper analysis of the situation, that it was fire. The whole town was on fire.

"What could be going on?" The dragon panicked having the same shocked look as his sister.

Twilight hesitated to answer and she didn't need to; they could both see the burning houses and hear the screams of panic. She then answered: "I just hope they're not blaming you for this too".

* * *

**Well, i hope you liked this story-inside-a-story. it's all i needed you to read to finish the introduction. Next time, the true story will begin; as i have exams i won't be able to write as fast as i'm used to, so be patient and please, comment and review. Grammar and/or vocavulary corrections are also welcome as i'm studying for CAE.**

**See ya/Read ya**

**Freeda91**


	3. The Dragon Invasion

_**Sorry i had to re-upload this chapter; i have just been informed about the true name of the red dragon (which i didn't know) so here's the correction.**_

_**Nothing else has changed.**_

* * *

**The Dragon Invasion**

Twilight and Spike rushed through the streets of the on fire Ponyville, expecting an explanation or at least to see everypony was safe; they'd come across trees, roofs and many things that were on fire. Strangely enough, there weren't close enough to each other for it to have been caused by a single small fire. It didn't make much sense that several small fires were created all at the same time in different places; nopony could be that careless. She came to a halt as soon as she spotted Rainbow Dash placing a rain cloud on top of a house on fire.

"Rainbow Dash" the lavender unicorn called for her. The rainbow manned Pegasus glanced at her and landed next to her.

"Twilight, good thing you're here" Rainbow gasped; obviously she had been too busy moving clouds everywhere. "Don't you have any spell that can help us out?" the Pegasus asked.

"I'm afraid I don't. But tell me, how in hay did this happen?" Twilight asked back.

"Oh…"Rainbow Dash hesitated to answer "It was the dragon" she said dramatically and starring at Spike.

"Hey, it wasn't me!" Spike defended himself "We were inside the library all day!"

Rainbow Dash chuckled "I know, haha. I'm just teasing you" both Spike and Twilight frowned at her. She noticed this and became serious again. "But seriously, it was _those_ dragons" she pointed behind them with a scared look.

"Those dragons?" Spike asked; turning around and seeing three dragons flying threateningly towards them. There was a red one with orange claws and spikes, a big brown one with two blue horns and a spiked ball for a tail, and a purple one with blonde hair that covered his eyes and yellow wings. Three dragons that they all knew; Spike specially. Twilight created a force field covering the three of them as soon as she saw the red one throw a fireball at them. However, as well as it protected them from the flames; it prevented them from escaping the dragons which now landed around them.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here" the red one said "if it isn't little Spike"

"What do you want Garbel?" Spike answered back "Why did you burn Ponyville?"

"I don't need to tell you".

"Yeah, no need to tell you we're going to conquer Equestria for us dragons" the purple one said. Garbel didn't hesitate to face slap himself and then wrap his mouth with his own tail.

"Thank you Ace, now they know it!" Garbel raged at Ace.

"But they still don't know that our entire army is again under the control of the most powerful dragon ever, who had been resting for at least a thousand years" added the brown dragon.

"Chomp, if you say one word more, I'll make you chomp your tail" Garbel now glared at him.

"So you're invading. But what about the dragon treaty?" Twilight asked, looking at Spike.

"That old decree means nothing to our leader, the magnificent white dragon only seeks revenge on ponykind". Garbel answered.

"And may I ask, why are you invading Ponyville? It's Canterlot where you should invade" Spike asked.

"Oh, don't worry; we will. But since that Celestia has such a powerful magic force field, we can't get there yet. So we decided to block their supplies by attacking other places. She wouldn't dare to sit and watch her entire kingdom burn, would she?" Garbel answered.

Twilight kept silence while the rival dragons raged and shouted at each other; Rainbow Dash help was great when coming up with insults as the other two dragons were as smart as a snail. Her thoughts were focused on how they knew so much about princess Celestia; last time he had referred to her as a nambi-whatever pony princess, but now he knew she was the powerful ruler of Equestria.

"Enough!" Garbel shouted, supporting his anger with a fire roar. "Why are we wasting our time with you, we need to secure this place before his highness arrives. Let's leave these helpless ponies and the pewee be. They can't do any harm; we witnessed that, they're too soft".

The three dragons flew away, and Twilight let go of her force field spell; with some questions answered and even more doubts, they carried on with extinguishing the fire and saving ponies in danger. First, of course, they needed to gather the whole gang together; starting with Fluttershy, being near a forest is very dangerous when it comes to fire.

"Well, let's go!" Rainbow Dash said before speeding out in search for her friend. But she was stopped by Twilight's magic.

"Wait, I think it'd be better if we came up with a plan; so we get everyone together in half the time. You go for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie; I'll fetch Rarity and Applejack and Spike will stay here in case they appear. You try to get somewhere high so that you can have a better view" She said this last to Spike. "we'll meet here as soon as possible. Hopefully enough those dragons were here just to create some fire to distract us; I saw how they discretely they flew away."

"You're right!" Rainbow realized "I first saw them when they rushed at us."

"Then let's go!" Spike interrupted "We need everypony here before their king gets here!" Spike was right and both ponies nodded before splitting up.

Rainbow Dash was the fastest, and it didn't take her more than a couple of seconds to get to Fluttershy's with her amazing flight speed. Not to her surprise, Fluttershy was making sure every creature that was under her care was safe; she was pretty brave when it came to her animals. Rainbow gasped in awe as she saw Fluttershy pass through a wall of flames in order to save an injured bird.

The rainbow manned Pegasus couldn't just ask her to leave the animals there helpless, but instead decided to help her so they'd get back faster. She didn't take her time to greet her friend in need, but immediately reached for a rain cloud and created some falling water to cease the fire; and in addition, she created a mini tornado to help extinguish the fire. The woodland creatures were now safe.

"Oh, thank you Rainbow Dash" Fluttershy told her as soon as they had taken all the animals far from the fire.

"You're welcome, now let's put these animals somewhere safe so we can go; we need to meet everypony else before the dragons come back."

"Dra-dra-dragons?" Fluttershy stuttered and was now shivering in terror, covering herself behind Angel.

"Come on Fluttershy" Rainbow rolled her eyes "I just saw you pass through a wall of flames and you're still afraid of some stupid teenage dragons?" Fluttershy didn't answer. "And not to mention that time where you tamed a full-grown dragon!" She added; Fluttershy was blushing but still undecided.

"But I need to take care of these poor creatures" she protested pointing at all the animals they had saved. "What'll happen if the dragons turn up again and I'm not here?"

"They left to meet with their leader; and besides, you'd be facing all the dragons by yourself anyway; wouldn't you prefer to have your friends by your side?" Rainbow argumented; to her fortune, Fluttershy was convinced.

"You're right Rainbow" the yellow Pegasus finally accepted and now flew alongside her friend; towards Pinkie Pie's.

Twilight, on the other hand, was galloping at full speed and was now close to the Sweet Apple Acres; to her fortune the Apple family was careful and smart; as soon as they spotted the fire, they used all the water they could get to extinguish it. When Twilight arrived all there were was ashes and a little toasty apple smell. Her hunger reappeared as she hadn't had lunch, but merely a small cupcake; but it wasn't the time to think about food, she had to bring Applejack to the town square.

"Twilight!" The orange pony galloped to her tired friend "What in tarnation is going on here? Where does the fire come from?"

"It's a long story" The lavender unicorn answered "In short, we're under a dragon invasion. I think it'd be the best if we stick together, so we'll all meet in the town square."

"Dragons? Invading?" Asked the shocked pony "As in dragon dragons?" She referred to wild, big dragons and not the Spike comparison.

"Why yes" Twilight answered ironically "Just some big scary and fiery everyday dragon; not a problem at all…"

"You didn't need to be that mean" Applejack frowned

"Sorry" Twilight apologized "but we need to go!" She left the Apple Acres and headed to Carousel Boutique, Applejack following behind.

Meanwhile, the two Pegasus had arrived at sugarcube corner and were surprised at the scene; Pinkie Pie was firefighting, with ice cream. She'd use a high pressure hose to squirt ice cream everywhere, half the time her mouth, but it seemed pretty effective against the fire; and her Pinkie sense actually helped her get some ponies out of houses falling apart.

"No wonder she saved those workers as Mare Do Well" Rainbow laughed and proceeded to help her friend by picking up some littered ice cream with gusts of wind and making it like a little blizzard; it helped reduce the fire in some way.

"Fhamk gu Rimbow Dass" Pinkie Pie said; assuming the fact she had her mouth full with ice cream, Rainbow deducted she meant a thank you.

"Eh… no problem" Was her answer.

"Pinkie Pie" Fluttershy told her almost in her ear "We need to get to the town square fast, before the dragons come!"

"Oh, do you think they'll want a welcome party?" The party fanatic pony asked; immediately pulling her party cannon out of nowhere.

"How did- where… ah forget it" Rainbow groaned and crossed her fore hooves.

Applejack was heading towards Rarity's at top speed; Twilight barely following behind, but doing so. She was really tired; not having lunch and performing a marathon to Apple Acres and Carousel Boutique. She wasn't even that good of a runner, and had tired herself up by not pacing as she did when she raced back on fall.

Hopefully for the tired unicorn, they had arrived at their destination; Applejack moved some rubble that was blocking the door and was knocking, practically kicking the door as hard as she'd hit an apple tree. No one answered, fearing the fire had knocked Rarity unconscious, she kicked the door out of the way and was pretty shocked at what she saw; all of Rarity's family on the floor unconscious of breathing the smoke and couldn't get out on time. The earth pony regained her composure and carried the poor unicorns out of the building. All was well, until the ceiling started falling apart right over Applejack; she closed her eyes but nothing happened. She was lucky Twilight had made it in time to stop the falling structure from killing her.

Once they got all the family outside and far from any fire, Twilight focused all her magic on the house to make sure Applejack could get inside and find rarity; she couldn't extinguish the fire, but if the structure was to fail again, it wouldn't as long as her spell was on. After two long minutes Applejack jumped out of a broken window to save time and let Twilight rest; as soon as she did they heard a loud crash; which meant something did fall; if not everything.

"Ah'm sorry Twilight" The orange pony said "but ah couldn't find her; she must've gone out before the whole fire started."

"Oh, I just hope she is fine" Twilight sounded worried; who wouldn't? The dragons had attacked them most probably because of vengeance; she had been part of the whole dragon quest thing, so could they have attacked her first?

As the two ponies headed back to the town square, slowly and searching far and wide on every street in order to find their missing friend, the two Pegasus and Pinkie Pie had arrived at the meeting place just in time to see Spike wasn't there. They were told by Rainbow Dash he'd be there waiting; maybe something happened or somepony appeared. They decided it'd be the best to just wait there while keeping an alert sky view eye.

The footsteps of a running unicorn could be heard as three dragons were getting dangerously close to her; Spike as a witness couldn't let those beasts get to her, especially being Rarity. He was on a roof waiting for the right moment and when the dragons were in the right place, he let go of a rope and several barrels fell over the dragons, slowing them the enough for Rarity to flee. She turned back as soon as she was out of sight of the dragons and spotted the small figure that had protected her; she recognized this one as Spike. The three dragons stood up and saw him; he couldn't escape now.

"There you are!" Rarity was shocked to her heart with Pinkie's loud sudden yell.

"You're finally here" Twilight added "We've been looking everywhere for you; good thing you're safe."

"Well…" She answered "I have three small problems behind me and a little guardian protecting me"

"Do ya mean to say that our Spike is fighting alone against those dragons?" Applejack interrupted.

"I'm afraid I do mean so" rarity answered to everyone's worry. "He must have seen I was in danger and set up a trap for the dragons" She added "Now they'll take it all on Spike!" She finally panicked.

"Not if we six can stop them" Applejack said; finally the six wielders of the elements were together in a moment of chaos. And this time they'd have to fight three teenage dragons without the power of the elements. The confident smile on Applejack's face was contagious and quickly spread to Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and everypony else.

"You're right!" Rainbow shouted "If these dragons want problems with ponies, then lets show them what we ponies can do; together!" She put her fore hoof forward waiting for the other ones to join her. They did immediately and cheered at the same time "together".

Next thing, the six ponies were charging towards the three dragons, which were having some trouble to hit Spike; two dragons were dumb enough to hit each other in a confusing move from Spike, where he sneaked below their legs and got them falling over each other. However, Garbel wasn't that stupid.

"I'll fight you myself Spike" Garbel exclaimed pushing the other two dragons away. "These two rock heads can distract your pony friends" He added; he had obviously seen the charging ponies. Chomp and Ace turned around and saw the six ponies prepared to defend their friend.

"Don't do it Spike!" Twilight yelled "we can fight all of them together! That way we'll definitely win."

"I know, but I need to do this. He asked for it from the very first time I confronted him." He answered standing still; not moving his eyes from Garbel's. "He wanted me to kill little Pewee, he burned all ponyville, and the worst thing he could have ever done…" He clenched his fists in anger "…he tried to hurt Rarity." The dragon was now death serious about it, and everypony knew so. It hadn't stroked them until then, but Spike was no longer a baby; he was a dragon, one who could defend himself and his beloved ones.

Garbelhad had enough of his brave talk, and was the first to attack with his fire breath; Spike was expecting this and tried to fight fire with fire. The idea was awful, as Garbel's fire was too strong for Spike's, and the little dragon was blown off by the power of the fire. What hurt the most was falling back, as being a dragon fire hardly did any damage to him; after all, all dragons use to swim in pools of hot lava.

"Dragon or pony, you're nothing but a baby." Garbel confirmed this with that last mini battle. "All I wanted to do that night was to smash an egg; or a hatchling." He advanced towards Spike slowly but surely "I guess I'll just kill a dragon instead." He finally said. He was next to Spike; he could just step on his head and finish him; but he decided to use his claws instead. He raised his hand skyward and intended to kill the purple and green dragon in one hit. He missed however, as Spike just vanished in a puff of purple dust and reappeared next to Twilight. "That's the spell you used when you fled from us the first time." Garbel noticed.

"Shall we begin, boss?" Ace asked, he looked anxious to attack the ponies.

"Do as you please" Garbel answered "I'll go ahead and guide the magnificent white dragon." He said before flying away. The two dragons grinned and stepped forward.

"Hey Ace, I wonder if grilled pony is tasty" Chomp told his friend.

"You think anything is tasty" The blonde dragon answered.

"What do we do girls?" Twilight asked "Do we stay and fight or do we run?" The lavender unicorn knew they had charged to save Spike; he was already with them, so they didn't need to put their lives on risk. Her stare was reflected in the blank expressions of their friends; Rainbow Dash wouldn't just run away, but it was important to stay alive wasn't it?

"They won't let you away" Spike said; standing up after being injured. "Ace is a really good flier; of course nothing compared to Rainbow. He won't let us escape easily. However, Chomp is pretty strong and resistant. He will be hard to take on if we decide to stay."

"So we can't flee and we can't win" Applejack groaned. "What do we do then?"

"I wasn't over" Spike interrupted "Chomp isn't very agile anyhow, so Rainbow Dash should have no problem evading his attacks; and Ace isn't exactly strong, just fast. It's like they are completely opposites." He said bringing the ponies hopes up a little "And they aren't all that smart either" he finally said; to which his friends giggled. "Appart from that, you guys are the wielders of the elements of harmony; as far as I know you battled the whole Changeling army alone!"

"It wasn't all of it" Rarity interrupted "But they were quite a number." She then added charmingly.

They didn't have the opportunity to decide whether to run or not, as the dragons had already closed by. Ace was flying quickly enough to distract them while Chomp was preparing himself for one of his famous fire burps; Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Spike had been witnesses of his large fireballs. Twilight didn't think it twice before creating a force field to shield them; however, Ace had been fast enough to tackle Pinkie Pie and Applejack out of it. The fire breath luckily missed these two by inches; but had already intimidated all of the ponies. Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried to get back to the force field before he blasted another fire attack. However, Ace once again separated these two from Twilight; this time by far too much even for Twilight to teleport them without breaking their shield.

"Fluttershy!" rarity began "try using your stare" she had a small hope she'd intimidate the dragons; after all it did intimidate one big, full-grown dragon once. "Just be accretive; think of how those dragons want to hurt your pets!" rarity added; she turned out to have pressed the right buttons, as Fluttershy became serious and her angry stare was upon her face. Incredibly enough it was effective; both Chomp and Ace were a little surprised and backed off a little.

"Wow, she's scary dude" Ace whispered to Chomp, to which he nodded.

The ponies took advantage of this and took an offensive position. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who were the closest ones to Chomp, headed his way; Applejack stood on her back hooves face to face with the brown dragon; and was throwing her fore hooves back and forth as if she was boxing. The dragon got taunted and imitated her; Pinkie Pie was a few feet away from the orange pony when suddenly she felt a tickling sensation in her tongue.

"To the left!" Pinkie Pie cried; Applejack obeyed her and evaded a punch from the dragon. Then she got another Pinkie sense and told her to jump; she did and evaded a low tail slam from the obese dragon. She then shivered and yelled her to roll as Pinkie took cover herself. Applejack rolled between the dragon legs just in time to escape from a fiery fire ball and had now the advantage of being on his back; she did her famous back kick, which sent the big dragon off the ground to land on his face next to Rarity. The desperate unicorn lifted a relatively big rock over his head and let go of it; with a loud moan, the dragon was knocked out by a now giggling rarity.

Twilight on the other hand, was having trouble shooting her magic beams to the agile dragon; and half the time she had to teleport to avoid a tackle or create a force field for his fire attacks, which weren't as strong as Chomp's, but it was still fire. "Need a hand?" Asked Rainbow Dash to what Twilight simply nod; the rainbow manned pegasus then flew at top speed around the dragon, creating a small tornado that blew the dragon off his balance and fell to the ground dizzy; Twilight saw this was her chance and used her magic on him to knock him out too.

"I told you these dragons didn't mean business" Spike exclaimed rubbing his scraped arm. "Good thing Garbel left though."

"Spike" Rarity mentioned "It was very noble of you to try and fight that dragon alone" she said at first; then her tone changed drastically into an angry one "but are you out of your mind!" She practically shouted him "If it wasn't for Twilight here that dragon would've killed you!" Spike was speechless; he knew he had made a mistake by relying on his proud; he wanted to avenge Rarity being chased off. However it had taken the worst of him and in the end he almost got killed.

"I'm Sorry, everypony" Spike sighed in depression "thanks for helping me anyway" he then added to which everyone nodded in response. Everything seemed to be going to be good for a while, everyone smiled at each other and they could finally have a moment to take a deep breath; unfortunately, they could spot Garbel flying nearby, accompanied by other two dragons and a white one, similar in size only a tad bigger, but by the way it flew, they could tell it was the famous magnificent white dragon.

The ponies tried to run away from the upcoming beast, but were surprised to see the two dragons that had just recently been taken care of standing up and blocking the way, as well as the rest of the dragon army approaching from the streets. It was deafening to hear the screams of terror from the ponies that were assaulted by dragons, defenseless as they were, their houses burned alongside the ones that opposed resistance. A couple of full-grown dragons could be seen laying on the limits of the town; blocking escape routes and entrances. As the sun finally set, the ponies experienced a horror as it was to see the whole town invaded by dragons; they could merely fight two of them, let alone they weren't smart. The moon made its appearance in the sky and the white dragon landed in front of them; he had quite a particular white shine for a regular dragon. Several dragons blocked their escape and even held them down, especially twilight. She tried to shove them of with her magic, but one of them simply held her horn with their claws; her magic wouldn't work.

"Unicorns, their magic is useless if their horn is affected in any way. I wonder why you show it with such pride. Your weapon and your weakness." The white dragon said, walking towards them. Something that was a complete shock to them was the fact that they were being levitated by some magic, not Twilight's nor Rarity's, but the dragon's one; a dragon with magic?

"Who-who are you?" Twilight managed to speak "How can you do this?"

"Surprised?" The turquoise spiked dragon said "it's a natural ability of those dragons that are born due to magic. My name is… too important to be pronounced to such creatures as yours, so refer to me as White; King White." Twilight and Spike had their jaws dropped to rock bottom. They both knew who he was, and unfortunately knew what he could do.

"You're princess Celestia's dragon!" Spike announced; all of the ponies but Twilight gasped loudly.

"My, my, what do we have here?" White asked jokingly as he analyzed the small dragon. "Looks like you're a smart one; and not only that, but you have been born due to magic as well!" He finally noticed. "I knew I could smell something weird in you. Tell me little dragon, why are you joining forces with these?" He asked, loosening his magic grip over him.

"They are my family; like Celestia was yours" Spike answered. "How could you do what you did! You killed your own brother!"

"He was the one who wanted to fight" The dragon defended himself "I wanted the dragons to take what belonged to them, everything!" He exclaimed by raising his arms in the air and increasing the volume of his voice "He decided to protect the 'harmony' and got what he deserved. I may have grown in pony hands, but nothing can change what I really am, a dragon!" He then stared into the shining moon, its brightness illuminating the not so dark night as it was being tanned in a fire red color. "The princesses were able to defeat me before, but I now know they're no longer connected to the power they once wielded and they're nothing compared to me!"

"A question, uh… White" Spike spoke gently "If the elements of harmony take the chaos out of your heart, then that'd mean…" He was cut off by the dragon. He was now frowning at the child for asking him such a question out of the blue; it was obvious he had no intention to answer it. That is, if the questioner wasn't another one of its own kind.

"I wasn't brought into chaos by any sort of magic" White replied "I did what I though was correct, to give my fellow dragons all the territory they deserved, the gems to gobble on, and recover the honor that was lost in the war with ponies."

"On the other hand" Spike added "your brother decided it was best for the two species to be in eternal peace; you were the one who took down the peace treaty by attacking your own brother!"

"My brother was weak!" White shouted almost as loudly as Luna used to speak "He was far too kind for a dragon, and coward to fight back"

"He was brave enough to stand up for his heart's desires, and face his own brother" Spike cut the big dragon off; White's frown on him was only narrowed by this fact, for such a small dragon he could find he was smarter than any other dragon in his army; perhaps a way he was raised? A dragon such as him would definitely be a great addition to his troops; especially since he was a magical dragon, the rarest of its kind.

"I'll give you a chance young…" White gestured by drawing circles with his hand in the air in order to get Spike to tell him his name.

"Spike" He replied firmly.

"Young Spike" the dragon continued "I'll give you the opportunity to join my dragon army, even as my own apprentice so that you can master your magic capabilities." Spike had some hard time processing the dragon's words. "It is already useless to fight for these ponies who are already doomed" he pointed out looking at the girls "you said they were your friends; but as a dragon brought up by ponies, I know the hard feeling of being different, feared by everyone else. Hated."

Spike suddenly felt as if the last night's events were being rubbed at his face again, and to his shock, it was all true. He may have a like for they for being their friends, but they also feared him and treated him differently than other ponies. He paced back and forward on making up his mind; he could either be loyal to his friends, or be promised to become a real dragon, and the mightiest of them all. He just couldn't evade the fact that even if he loved his friends with all his heart, he was a dragon; and it was only a matter of time before he grew up and had to leave them, because of his size, and life expectancy. He took a final decision, he looked back at his friends to see the worried looks on their faces; one by one he analyzed everyone's expressions and deducted their feelings. However, rarity took the most time for him, apart from Twilight who he had shared his entire childhood with. Having made up his mind he gave him the pleasure to see the faces of the ones he loved one more time as their friend...

"I would be honored to become your student, my king…"

* * *

Dum, Dum, Dum...

ok as you may have guessed, this is where the main story takes place. Shall you like it, tell me; shall you not, tell me.

Spike has finally decided to be what he unavoidably is, a dragon.

By the way... i'm having some hard time telling appart the difference between Pegasi and Pegasus; i like using th latter, but if it's wrong please tell me.

See ya/ Read ya,

Freeda91


	4. Shattered Petals

**Shattered Petals**

"Ha!" Twilight screamed happily "You actually though Spike could possibly… wait, what!" The unicorn finally gasped as the dragon's words where processed in her mind, causing her brain to crash; Spike had decided to join the dragons' conquer of Equestria, making him their enemies. There was a sudden deep silence in the area; the ponies could only stare and have their jaws drop with no defense against the shocking present. Spike had been their friends ever since they met and now he'd just leave that friendship for power, knowledge or whatever reason he had had. A strange sensation ran through Twilight's body; was it anger? Anger against his assistant? Anger for being betrayed? All of the previous. The fact that Spike had decided to change sides just like that was something as unbelievable as it was hard to face.

"My dear Spikey-wikey…" Rarity whispered as a small drop came out of the corner of her eye. She closed her eyes in order to avoid breaking into tears. Her heart was devastated but it was clearly not the right time to show that kind of weakness to the now enemy; was it? How couldn't she be sad? The very same dragon who had confessed to her and to whom she had actually started to develop a thing for was now on the other side of the line. Something seemed to be wrong though; her heart was brutally broken, so how could Spike stand still while the love of his life was suffering that much.

It was then that it occurred to her, that perhaps he didn't love her that much; he didn't love any of them the enough not to betray them. Even though the facts pointed this out, there was still an uneasy feeling deep within her heart; she couldn't just come to conclusions that quickly, none of them could. Spike needed to give them an explanation, but it seemed they wouldn't get it soon; but she'd make sure they got it somehow.

"I can't deny it and neither can you!" Spike ranted the ponies, not only his friends "you know how everypony treats me like a monster, and guess what?" he said pointing at himself with proud "Maybe I am a monster! I am a dragon, like it or not." The small dragon took a quick pause to rest his voice from shouting and resumed. "And even though you're my friends now, it is only a matter of time before things change. I'm given the opportunity to accelerate that moment and be trained to be the most powerful kind of dragon." He now stared at Twilight "What would you do? You don't know… You've never had any idea of what it is to be different from everyone else, to be feared by your own friends, to be condemned to live the last moments of your life alone." The young dragon's words cut through the ponies' hearts like sharp blades; it was clearly now which road Spike had chosen and it was now certain that he was no longer the Spike they knew and loved.

Rarity wasn't the only pony who was crying now; as contagious as laughter, her tears expanded through the six ponies, now broken. It was such a sad moment even Pinkie Pie had fallen in the contagiousness of her friends' cries. Rainbow Dash and Applejack however, were frowning angrily at the dragon as well as letting a couple of tears come down through their faces.

"Do not get ahead of yourself, young dragon" White interrupted the heartbreaking moment. "As I may have offered you training, I still require some guarantee of your loyalty to me." He added and turned to the ponies. "These were your friends…" he pointed out "kill at least one of them and you will automatically be awarded the honor to be my apprentice." Everyone stared at him; his dragon subjects, the ponies, and Spike. He may have decided to join him, but he definitely wasn't ready to kill; let alone his friends. He was stunned by the request of the dragon king, and so were the ponies. Fear now replaced the sadness within them, as they questioned themselves if Spike would do it or not, and if not what would the dragons do to them.

"My highness" Garble asked permission to speak, and as soon as he saw the dragon nod he continued "This shri… Spike, couldn't even break a single phoenix egg" Spike frowned at the red dragon "He won't be useful at all for this war; he might as well be imprisoned with these namby pamby ponies." Spike wanted to shut him up somehow, but he had almost been killed by him not so long ago, let alone he needed to build some trust within his new fellow dragons.

"He'll have to show me his loyalty somehow; I'd prefer he killed one of them, but as I can see" White said noticing the small size Spike was compared to the ponies "He couldn't even catch them if it wasn't for my magic."

"Put me to the test!" Spike growled; White frowned at him for speaking without permission, but allowed him to continue anyway. "I'll show you I don't need your help; teleport them away and I'll catch them."

White grinned at the young dragon's confidence "All right, Spike. But I'll have Chomp and Ace keep an eye on you until you've proven yourself." Saying so, White used his magic to teleport the ponies with a white flash at different locations, all inside Ponyville. "I shall recommend you to track them with your smell; if it is sensitive enough that is." Spike nodded and left, searching for his friends again; Chomp and Ace followed him from a close distance, constantly hitting and blaming each other for their lame loss against the ponies.

Rainbow Dash had appeared somewhere close to Fluttershy's cottage, and as stubborn as ever, she proceeded to search for her friends from high in the sky; not caring whether the dragons lurking the skies spotted her or not. After not too long, she was being shot several fire balls from practically everywhere and even though she could evade them, the risk was such that she was forced to land and remain silent for a while. On the harsh landing she got her wing hurt; even though it hadn't broken, it hurt her enough not to enable her to fly for a while. Exhausted, she hid herself inside what seemed to be an empty house to treat her wing. She realized how stupid it had been of her to fly that carelessly; getting out of Ponyville would definitely be impossible by simply flying, and galloping was an even worse idea.

As she was rubbing her injured wing a soft voice whispered from behind her, scaring her to her soul. As she jumped back and turned around she saw Fluttershy, who was taking care of a bunch of injured and scared fillies; within them were Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Bell. The shy pony was surprised to see her friend's reaction "Are you okay, Rainbow?"

"I-I'm fine" stuttered the blue pegasus "It's just that you scared me back there" she explained rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy apologized bringing both hooves to her mouth.

"Hey, don't sweat it" Rainbow cut her off "Good thing you're here, I was starting to get worried for everypony; I couldn't see anypony from the sky." she added.

"What do we do about Spike and the dragons?" Fluttershy asked; the Cutie Mark Crusaders stepped behind them to overhear their conversation as soon as they heard their friend being mentioned. "He's searching for us, you know"

"I suppose we'd better stay here for a while, as much as I don't like it, it's better for us to remain hidden from the dragons until we are safe enough to leave." Rainbow groaned as her eyes dropped.

There was an extremely deep silence; with the fear that consumed everypony, and the fact that they needed to be quiet, no one could conform each other as they were all in the same boat. And they couldn't rest just yet, the dragons' first step of their plan was to attack Ponyville, who knows what'd be of their citizens, and if they wanted to recover the town, they needed to think for once. The two pegasi realized then how much they needed Twilight.

After not so long of being hidden from the rampaging creatures that set on fire everything that moved, they heard a loud knocking at the door as well as a yelp for help; they recognized this voice as Rarity's. Rainbow Dash rushed to the door and opened it to let a panting Rarity inside; the unicorn gasped for air as she reincorporated herself. She then glanced at both pegasi and thanked Celestia for finding them; however, she then remembered why the sudden rush inside. "Girls, I'm being chased!" Rarity yelled. The two friends gasped in horror and surprise.

"Do you think they saw you get in here?" Rainbow asked in fear.

"I don't know, but Spike was one of them" was the unicorn's unsatisfactory answer. The three of them sighed slightly as they understood why they now had to fear the small guy. They didn't have time enough to deepen their agony as a couple of seconds later they could hear the dragons land in front of the door; they didn't know how to be subtle at all. They reacted quickly and got away from the door; as they did so, Chomp crushed the wooden door with his tail and removed the remaining pieces of it with his hands. The door was no more and they could be seen by the three dragons; and to harden things, they had fillies to protect.

"Fluttershy, get the fillies out of here!" commanded Rainbow Dash to her pink manned friend. "I'll take care of these lizard brains." The rainbow manned pegasus now stood in front of her friends, blocking any attempt to reach them without getting past her dead body; she wasn't the wielder of the element of loyalty for nothing. With her hurt wing she knew she wouldn't be able to perform such swift movements as she might need and would end up losing, but she'd give her friends the time enough to escape.

"At least allow me to help" Rarity put her hoof on her shoulder and whispered for the dragons not to hear "if anyone is capable of bringing Spike back to his senses, it is me." Rainbow Dash though about it for a second and nodded, and using all the strength of her wings, she casted small gusts of wind to repel the intruders while Fluttershy exited the building through the back door with the fillies; she then vanished into the forest for protection.

Ace had been blown away by Rainbow Dash's wind, but Chomp remained on the ground and didn't even move an inch; he also stopped Spike from blowing off as he grabbed him before he did so. As the fat dragon was gathering some air to create fire, Rarity quickly assaulted him with dirt on his eyes; the dragon yelled in pain and was now blinded. Rainbow Dash took this chance and tackled him with all her power and got him on the floor for a while; he was busy trying to get his eyes open, which gave her the time enough to take care of the blonde dragon. Rarity, on the other hand, was now face to face with Spike; he needed to explain himself, and if he had really chosen the dragons over his friends then she'd try her best to convince him to help them.

Spike's eyes resembled hatred and it seemed greed would quickly follow and make of him a monster again. Once again, Rarity felt devastated and confused at the same time; she knew he loved her, there was no mistaking. Then again he betrayed her; nopony could ever understand that logic. It couldn't be because he understood he didn't have a chance with her because it was a lie. He knew they both loved each other and if the dragon invasion hadn't interfered, they'd be together at last. This wasn't his natural behavior; perhaps a hex?

"Spike, why are you doing this?" The unicorn showed her concern with the most cracked voiced she had ever had. "Didn't you love me?" Even though it wasn't intentional, a small tear accompanied her words. Spike stood there, emotionless and speechless for a couple of seconds with is eyes closed; he was preparing himself to say something, something he didn't want to say or was too ashamed to say.

The small dragon sighed and answered back _"I'm sorry my love, but I have to do this"_ The dragon's reply took no more than a second to be understood by the unicorn. But it felt like ages; ages facing the small purple dragon and remembering all the good times they had had together before then. From their adventures hunting gems to the dragon's birthday disaster and even to what should have been the kiss from receiving the beautiful sapphire flower. The sudden answer broke Rarity's spirit in ridiculously small shards, and her heart was crushed into even more pieces. Before Rarity could do anything else, the room was covered in fire and smoke.

* * *

As the smoke covered the structure that had been blazing from the green fire for a couple of minutes, Rainbow Dash defeated the blonde dragon by doing the same thing as not so long ago. But she couldn't do anything else than gasping in fear and despair as she saw the place her friend was at falling down in ashes as the small dragon came out with a lock of purple hair in his claws. Before she could do anything like assaulting at Spike for doing what she thought he had done, Chomp got back to his feet and grabbed Rainbow Dash; not any kick or whatever she'd try could get her free from his grip, as the dragon was resistant to all of them. Normally she'd free herself using her wings, but her injured one prevented her from doing so.

"You're lucky my wing's like this, otherwise you'd be crying" Rainbow growled behind their backs as the three dragons regrouped. Ironically though, Chomp was crying due to the dust on his eyes.

"What do we do with this rainbow pony?" Chomp asked his new 'boss'. It didn't surprise Spike that someone as small as him could be Chomp's boss. He was clearly what would be called muscles only; and not even that, as he had been easily taken down by 'weak' ponies once.

"We go back, I've proven myself." Spike firmly said without explaining anymore. With Rainbow Dash as their prisoner, they headed back to where White was supposedly waiting for them. The rainbow manned pegasus muttered several silent insults incomprehensible for the dragons as they made their way to the dragon king. On the way Rainbow Dash could see the houses, now free from fire but totally damaged from it, which now were empty and nowhere near of being inhabitable. Despite her hard work trying to cease the fire and defend her land from the invaders, it was useless; they had destroyed Ponyville.

As the dragons who brought with them a defeated Rainbow Dash approached the king White, they passed through a devastating scene as ponies who were lucky enough to live after the attack were chained together and kept under constant vigilance. Rainbow Dash was relieved for a second, as she couldn't spot any of her friends within those ponies. Then a fearful thought poisoned her mind as the sudden realization that perhaps her friends weren't there because they had suffered the same destiny as Rarity. Her fears decreased as she saw three dragons bring four unconscious ponies: all her friends.

"These four ponies recklessly confronted some of my dragons, and in order to test you, I allowed them to live for a while" White said obviously pointing the four now waking up ponies; then he noticed Rainbow Dash and a grin formed in his face "I see you've caught one of your friends as you had to"

"I'm afraid I didn't capture her" Spike shook his head "Chomp did. However, I did something further than capturing one…" he said as he showed the white dragon the lock of purple hair to which his friends all gasped at as they glanced at it. "…I turned one to ashes." The young dragon finally said.

"Just a lock of hair?" White complained "You know I need more evidence than that"

"Rainbow Dash here is the only witness" Spike added then revealed a sapphire flower in his hand "and to prove my friends I did so…" he said as he gently placed the precious flower that had taken him so much work to make and to give; which meant a lot to the love of his life, who he had burned. The dragon proceeded to stomp it with such ferocity the noise was deafening and the image was so perturbing, the five ponies where awe struck. Even if Pinkie Pie's sense could foresee many things in the immediate future; that one was clearly something she'd have never guessed.

"How could you!" Rainbow Dash roared in tears; there was no possible way she could ever hide the excessive amount. "How could you kill Rarity!" The last sentence replaced the deafening noise the crushing flower made; as it was even worse to hear those words than witnessing the proof that Spike had provided them.

The word Rarity felt like a taboo, as it suddenly hit the remaining ponies with the cruel reality that their friend was gone; and the assassin who had taken her away from them was no one else than Spike, one of their closest friends, and the one who loved Rarity the most. Pinkie Pie let a waterfall of salty water come from her eyes as she desperately gave consecutive small yet loud sobs. Her friends weren't as exaggerated as her but were obviously heavily crying.

As White glanced at the cries of the five ponies he understood the young dragon was telling nothing else than the truth; in fact the most important thing for White, was for Spike to prove to himself that he wanted to be a real dragon. The shattered petals from the precious gift reduced to a clear and sparkling dust, shiny and beautiful yet awfully meaningless for the dragon, which quickly drifted away by a soft breeze into the nothingness. There stood Spike, surrounded by complete silence, amazed at what he had just done. The next thing he could hear was the applause of King White, followed by his subjects.

"Congratulations, young Spike" the evil dragon said "you have just earned yourself a high position in my troops; come with me so that we can talk" he gestured the small dragon to follow him then looked back at the dragons that were holding the five ponies "kill them" he coldly said.

The shocked baby dragon stood still, almost frozen, as he heard White's command on the dragons who held his friends; he knew they were the enemy, but he did share his entire childhood with them. He already felt bad enough, so he stopped his superior. "Wait!" The white dragon frowned at the small dragon but listened anyway "I don't think you should kill them, since they are the wielders of the elements of harmony" Spike must have said something that attracted the powerful dragon's attention as he noticed how his eyes shot open "If the wielders die, the element just passes on to another one. However, we can keep them prisoners and that way they won't be able to fetch the elements of harmony nor die to let another free pony wield them and defeat us." Spike's explanation seemed made up to the king; but it could make sense too.

"Interesting suggestion my faithful student" The dragon patted Spike's head as he ordered his subjects to take the prisoners away.

Before they could do it however, all of them but Rainbow Dash had a not so mysterious purple glow enveloping them. Even though the dragons blocked Twilight's horn, the spell wasn't stopping. To everyone's surprise, the four ponies turned into dust, only to disappear on thin air and allowing these very same ponies to charge from an entrance to the sewers. Despite the awful smell they now carried with them, they managed to get through the surprised guards and got close enough to Rainbow Dash for Twilight to teleport the five of them back to the sewers. As the dragons tried to follow them they found out they were far too big to pass through the narrow entrance.

"I'll follow them!" Spike told the king, who stopped him on his tracks by blocking the way with his tail.

"I don't think you can handle the five of them alone… yet." White explained. Spike took an angry sigh, and conformed to simply follow his new leader in order to learn the magic that could make him a great and powerful dragon. "They will come on their own" White added as if he could predict the ponies' moves.

* * *

The five ponies walked in a very depressed and slow way through the pestilent sewers. Rainbow Dash had already thanked them for the rescue, but felt ashamed of not being able to protect Rarity from her fate. She walked even slower than her friends because of this and the fact that they had no idea where they were going. Twilight however, seemed to have a hint of what the road would take them to and was leading with confidence.

"What exactly did you do Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked her magical friend "I know you didn't teleport cause you'd have taken me too in the first place."

"We tricked the dragons with a simple illusion" Twilight replied without even turning back to face the blue coated pony; she was busy and tired, using her magic to lighten the place up for them to see each other, and figuring out where they were going.

"What do we do now?" Applejack asked, her preoccupation affecting the whole group.

"We need to think of some way to rescue the captured ponies and ask princess Celestia for help." Twilight answered before looking in understanding at her famished friends who barely followed behind her: Rainbow Dash was hurt, and they were lost; not to mention her hunger. After considering these facts she decided there was necessity for resting "for now, we need to find a place to take shelter" she then added.

"Where do you think this tunnel goes to Twilight?" Fluttershy asked her unicorn friend.

"I'm just guessing, but I think it may lead us to the castle were we confronted Nightmare Moon" Twilight replied the shy pegasus. "May as well serve us as a safe house for now" She took a deep sigh as a tear dropped on the wet tunnel "With Celestia as my witness, I swear I won't let this crime against our friend go unpunished…whatever the cost".

* * *

The plot thickens! sorry for not writing for so long, i'been busy...conecting dots.

See ya/read ya

Freeda91


	5. The Resistance

**The Resistance**

Ashes and smoke was everything the panting pony could see; separated from her friends and family, and left to run for her life as the dragons approached her with fiery claws stretched. Her mane was originally yellow, but turned to black due to the acting of the health damaging smoke. She was running merely to save her life but on several points she thought about going back and dying to the dragons, having lost hope on several occasions and finding herself alone most times. If her life was condemned to be empty and lonely for as long as it would last, it might even be better for her to die without suffering an eternity without the ones she loved. She shook those thoughts away from her mind; the dragons were getting closer by her distraction.

However, how long could she keep running and staying in the world of the living? The question would never be answered until it was already over; which, to her dismay, would be answered soon as the ash covered mare had gotten herself into a dead end and being an earth pony had no way out nor any possibility of surviving when the dragons showed up. She regretted being away from her home and having lost sight of her friends, which could have been helpful somehow. She looked back only to see the face of death; a dark blue dragon doubling the size of a stallion, with deep black claws and spikes, and terrifying crimson eyes.

The brown coated pony shrank herself into a cuddle and waited for everything to end as the dark dragon breathed in, in order to release a blast of fire. The earth pony closed her eyes and imagined her family once again, wished she was with them; that would ease the pain she'd feel in short. Since the infernal heat of the fire didn't touch her even though she could hear the dragon exhaling fiercely, thus not feeling the consequent deadly cold of death, she opened her eyes to impress herself and gasp to a point she forgot about the dragon. A purple glass-like bubble was covering her and a unicorn which, for her, appeared out of nowhere, and repelled the flames to the sides.

The blonde pony must have missed something, because the next thing she saw was that the two of them suddenly appeared inside some sort of bad smelling tunnel. She glanced everywhere not understanding whatever had happened and turned to the unicorn for an explanation; it was the first time for her to witness magic. The purple unicorn turned to her smiling and introduced herself "Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle"

The earth pony didn't answer right back; she was still amazed by Twilight's magic "I-I'm Sandy Hoof" answered the earth pony. "I'm from Baltimare"

"Nice to meet you" greeted Twilight with a big smile, and pointed behind the pony "Applejack here will take you to a dragon-proof place" she explained to Sandy. The earth pony immediately turned around to see another earth pony, Applejack, carrying a lantern with her.

"Sure thing Twilight" Said Applejack as she gestured the pony to follow her. As she did so, she saw Twilight disappear in a purple flash; no matter she had already seen it, magic still amazed her.

"So" Applejack tried to have a conversation to pass the time "Ah hear you're from Baltimare; do yah know if the dragons made it there?"

"Well, I was spending my holidays here with some friends here when the invasion began, so I honestly don't know" answered the brown pony, not really giving Applejack a good answer.

"It has been a month since the invasion began, Ah'm glad you survived on your own" Applejack commented, as she speed up a little when she visualized the exit. Sandy followed behind her.

"Actually, I was a prisoner; like most ponies in town. It surprised and relieved me how a small dragon persuaded the others to take us prisoners instead of killing us in the act…" Applejack had reached the door and was on the verge of opening it, but came to a halt as she realized Sandy had mentioned Spike; her full attention was now set on the earth pony's words "I took the risk of trying to escape even though it had been warned that by doing so, they had the King's permission to kill. Hopefully your friend was there to save me."

Applejack was terribly confused by Spike's acting; she'd need to discuss it with Twilight and the others when they came back from their rescuing duties. For now she had to lead the new pony into the 'harmony castle' for her to rest and have some medical assistance if she needed it. The blonde pony opened the wooden door and revealed a cobblestoned staircase which, once walked up, would take them to the main hall were dozens of ponies were. The first time Applejack had visited that place, the pedestal in the center held the first five elements of harmony, although not on their true form. This time however, the empty spots were replaced by beautiful flowers; which made the statue what liven the room the most.

"Let me show yah around" Applejack offered, to which Sandy just nodded "On the room to the left there's Fluttershy's food recollection and storage" She said pointing to said pegasus who was leading a group of animals carrying berries and other kinds of plants to a big room with dozens of big shelves; since she had such a special touch with the forest animals, they helped her and her group of ponies find the fruits and vegetables they needed for food and medicine. Poking on her back, Applejack continued "Over there is Zecora's potion chamber, where she makes all kind of curative potions" Indeed, Zecora, assisted by Applebloom, was making some sort of stew-like brew with some of the plants brought by Fluttershy's team and around them where a couple of colts who every then hurried to grab a bottle of whatever potion it was and rushed to the infirmary, where even more ponies were attending the injured ones; some patients were awfully hurt and needed forced rest, completely stationary on their beds.

"Ah'm afraid that's pretty much all there is, Sandy" Applejack explained "yah can go ask for a pillow at the big hall and rest; that's all the furniture available we have. Since it's already getting late we'll be serving dinner soon. As for tomorrow yah'll be given a task; until then try to fit in." The brown pony was happy to now understand what every place was and headed to the hall as soon as she spotted one of her friends waving at her, making her smile and yell out of happiness and leaving a tired Applejack to finish her chores.

On her way to the kitchen to help with dinner, she was stopped midway by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, who seemed to have finished their job, which consisted on roaming the town in search of ponies and lead them underground where somepony needed to take them to the castle, like Applejack did. Depending on the danger of their situation Twilight would intervene and help rescue the ponies with her magic. Twilight's attempt of saving Sandy was a clear example of somepony in a dangerous situation.

"Hey Applejack" greeted the blue pegasus. Applejack could tell she was in a hurry just by looking at her expression "Have you seen Derpy? I'm afraid that she might have gone to the town…again" Rainbow Dash was completely right to be in a hurry; knowing Derpy she might have gone off even when danger is everywhere. It felt weird to be afraid of something like going to Ponyville, but the current situation made it that way.

"Ah'm sorry, sugarcube" Applejack replied shaking her head; Rainbow Dash hurried to another room in search for her careless friend, not allowing Applejack to say whatever else she would say.

"Wanna help me cook, Pinkie?" Asked Applejack to her pink friend, completely ignoring Rainbow Dash's commotion and sudden flyout.

"Sure" quickly agreed the enthusiastic pony as she followed Applejack into the kitchen. The first thing they could see as soon as they got in, was Granny Smith and the Cakes, arguing about whether it was better to make either one of their recipes. The term arguing in this case included a food fight, though the only ones taking part in it were Granny Smith and Mrs. Cake. Granny Smith had half the helpers confused with her odd but useful ways of cooking, and most times nopony understood what she wanted them to do. The cakes on the other hand only wanted to do desserts, probably because that was what they did best, nut lacked healthy food. To solve this culinary team division, Pinkie Pie stood up and presented her very own idea.

* * *

An hour later, nearly a dozen ponies came out of the kitchen carrying several big baskets of delicious treats; from fresh fruits to freshly baked muffins and cakes. Since they now relied on the fruits they found in the forest, there weren't a flavor in specific, like Applejack's trademark apple pie, but there was more variety in taste; they now counted with a big variety of wild berries and inexplicably due to the biome, bananas. Applejack was one the ponies who carried these baskets, and dropped them one by one on a couple of tables for other ponies before finally arriving at her friend's. She gave small plates to everypony and placed a big fat 'random pie' in the middle of the table. Twilight used her magic to serve her friends the tasty meal; it was called the 'random pie', made by Pinkie Pie, because not even she knew what was inside. Hopefully it wouldn't end up like Applejack's disastrous worm muffins.

As Twilight levitated a slice to Applejack, she noticed her down expression; she seemed to be troubled or at least tired, more than usual. It was true Applejack had worked harder than everypony, but she usually worked even harder and looked half as tired as then "Is something wrong Applejack?" asked the worried unicorn.

"Ah'm just a little confused Twi" Replied the blonde pony "You see, one of the ponies we saved told me that most ponies have been taken prisoners" Applejack tried to explain herself.

"So…" Twilight didn't need to explain she didn't understand because it was all written on her blank face.

"She told me a 'small dragon' commanded the other ones not to kill them, but to imprison them." She made her point by making emphasis on 'small dragon', so they all immediately knew what the topic of the conversation was.

Since Applejack stopped explaining, and Twilight didn't totally see an anomaly or something which should be confusing she repeated her failure to understand "What would be wrong with that? I mean it's already settled that he's playing for the other side. What's so strange about taking them prisoners?"

"What Ah mean to say is that he doesn't want ponies to die, but he did kill Rarity himself." Applejack didn't notice, but she had raised the level of her voice to a point several ponies were staring at her; not to mention she had also smashed the table in a blast of anger.

"Calm down, I know how you feel about talking about this; we all know" Answered softly the purple pony in an attempt to chill her friend; which actually worked and made a disturbed Applejack settle down and take a bite at her slice of pie, tasting the strange but tasty combination of blueberries and carrots. "But your point is interesting though" Twilight pointed out.

"What if it was another small dragon?" suggested Fluttershy.

"Nah; unless the king had a son or something like that, Ah don't think a small dragon could have so much authority over bigger ones" Applejack quickly rejected the pegasus' idea.

"What if…" Pinkie Pie hesitated to ask; mostly because she didn't have faith in her question herself "What if he didn't kill Rarity after all?"

Unlike most of the times that Pinkie made a comment that made no sense at all, this one wasn't the case. In fact, it was highly improbable considering all the evidence; on the other hand, Rarity's body hadn't been found. The four stared at Pinkie Pie as if she had said the dumbest thing in the world. However, that seemed the best theory so far; at least the happiest one.

"Sorry to bring down such a good idea" interrupted Rainbow Dash "But even if we didn't see the body ourselves, I saw how the whole building fell down into a big pile of rubbish. The only thing I saw get out of there was Spike, and not to mention he destroyed that sapphire flower of hers. I might not be all into romance and stuff, but I needn't to realize that means something" Rainbow Dash was the only witness of the event since Fluttershy had fled with some fillies to the forest, so it was her who could confirm whether their theories were possible or not. "I'm sorry I'm the negative here, but there's no possible way she made it out of there."

"What if she was abducted by aliens?" Pinkie Pie brought up; unlike her last idea, this one was completely nonsense and simply ignored.

"She's a unicorn" Twilight explained "I'm not sure whether she can teleport or not; which could answer if she escaped or not. However, since we haven't seen her for a month, I don't think she could." The smart unicorn finally said, sad at her own conclusion.

Noticing how the Rarity topic was affecting Twilight and the whole group, Fluttershy decided to change the subject. "So, Twilight…" The unicorn faced her friend "Has princess Celestia answered back?"

Twilight simply shook her head before answering in an even more depressive tone "Since we don't have Spike's magic flames, we can't send instant messages; and Owlowiscious isn't so fast as to travel in a day or two." The purple coated pony remembered how dangerous it was to lurk in the skies or even the grounds; even for a nocturne flier like her owl, who would find it easier to cross as dragons didn't need to block his way "I just wish he's not in trouble." Rainbow Dash herself tried to cross the skies at high speed to get to Canterlot to talk to the princess in person, but the dragons did a really good job guarding the skies; and although Celestia must have known about the current situation, she couldn't do much to help without leaving Canterlot, Equestria's capital, completely unguarded. And the fact of not having communications only made things worse.

Fluttershy had failed miserably in her attempt to cheer Twilight up; and in the progress, she depressed both a little. No matter which angle they looked the problem from, only tragedies seemed to be the result; at least they were safe as long as they stayed in the castle. They had formed the small resistance as a way to protect their friends from the dragons; succeeding in rescuing them, they realized how little prepared they were to face them. All they could do was hide whenever a dragon appeared, and perhaps that was for the best, since that way they could evade problems such as having more injured ponies and the fact of losing their only secret hideout and be left to wander around aimlessly in search of another roof to take shelter. As for the mane…5, they had promised under the name of both Celestia and Luna, to make it up for Rarity's loss. What occupied their mind in unison was: how?

"You know" Rainbow Dash began "We've been rescuing lots of ponies these weeks; don't you think it's time we took our home back?" She suggested.

"That's a terrible idea Rainbow" Twilight said coldly "We're completely unequipped for a battle" then she pointed to the infirmary "And look at the number of injured ponies we have. Our 'resistance' was merely a survival organization." She knew she was being too harsh on the way she answered to her but she was already too depressed to care, and it was Rainbow Dash who she was talking to; the self-proclaimed toughest pony in all Equestria.

"Alright, sorry for bringing that up." Rainbow cut her off "It was just an idea."

The silence had covered the whole table. What was intended to be a lively dinner with friends, turned out to be an arguing place which saddened the ponies more and more every time they tried to come up with a 'better' explanation for what was actually going on. Hopefully for them, a loud slam at the door would draw their attention away from all those sad feelings, as they'd turn around to see Derpy who was thought to be lost again. Rainbow Dash sighed in relief as the grey pegasus seemed to be safe; shortly afterwards however, her anger taking over herself. She flew towards the cross-eyed pony and was now raging at her.

"Where were you?" Rainbow roared "we thought you were done for" she explained. She calmed herself down as soon as she realized she was sounding overly dramatic.

"I was just a little lost" Derpy replied. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes; at least nothing bad had happened to her friend.

"You made sure no dragon was following you, right?" Rainbow asked; that was her second priority concern.

"Of course I did" lied Derpy. A couple of seconds after saying so, they could feel some sort of trembling in the castle. From the ceiling fell some blocks of stone, a column fell down, and the crystal windows seemed to be about to break out of the noise of a loud roar. It definitely was a dragon, and a big one! It had attacked the castle with his big and crushing tail fortunately doing no more damage than the described before. From the windows hundreds of dragons could be spotted, getting awfully close to the castle. "Sorry, my bad" apologized Derpy, lowering her ears.

"What do we do now Twilight?" Asked Rainbow "There's no longer any point in hiding now that they know we're here, is there?"

"There is one 'panic room' though" Twilight told mostly to herself "But it's not so big"

"Then Ah guess we'd better take the injured ponies there" Applejack suggested "As well as some nurses and all the food we can carry. That way at least the ponies already hurt will survive"

"And we get to kick some dragons' tails!" Rainbow Dash interrupted in a loud cheer. Applejack frowned at her for doing so, but Twilight nodded at her instead; they would need a distraction for them to get the ponies to safety.

"So… where is it?" Applejack asked.

Twilight simply pointed to the big statue that was the castle's main decoration before answering "I can lift the statue with my magic, and a secret lock will reopen it whenever they run out of supplies, but will damage the statue and unable the room. I'm going to need your help as I'll need my complete concentration to do so; it must be as heavy as the Ursa Minor." She exaggerated, not much though.

"Don't worry Twilight" Pinkie Pie assured her "Applejack and I will cover you!" Once again, Pinkie had her party cannon next to her and as always everypony stared at her in confusion. Applejack on the other hand, hurried to get a bucketful of apples and other projectiles; she had some deadly aim with her back hooves so fliers wouldn't be such a big problem, unless they used heavy fire on them. That was their main concern, with Twilight's focus on the statue, magic shields wouldn't be usable.

Once everything was planned, Fluttershy helped move the injured ponies to the panic room as Rainbow Dash was gathering some brave ponies to distract the dragons with her and if possible, defeat them. Just like when she was assigned as captain for bringing water up to Cloudsdale, her speech was so influential she got at least three quarters of the resistance ponies to help her. And despite the fact that they were no more than thirty, and were unequipped for any conflict, they seemed to be brave enough to face the fearsome beasts.

It intrigued them why the big dragon that had crashed into the castle hadn't destroyed it by now, or released a devastating flame to burn them all. But they were grateful for that. As for the other dragons however, they passed through the windows, breaking them as if there was no crystal, and started assaulting at the ponies. Just when Rainbow Dash was expecting the dragons to incinerate everypony with fire, which they seemed to be defenseless to at the time, the beasts simply skydived to the ponies and flew off with them from the very same way they came from. Not only had some of them done this, but every single dragon. Like it was some sort of order, no fire was seen during the entire scene. This made things for Applejack and Pinkie Pie a whole lot easier not having to take cover for any blast of fire. Any dragon who tried to reach them or the injured ponies would receive a back knocking hit of either a bullet-like speeding apple or a pie instead.

Rainbow Dash and her crew were having an awful time. Despite not suffering from any burn, the dragons quickly decreased the number of defending ponies by kidnapping them. No dragon seemed able to capture Rainbow Dash, but everypony else was an easy target. Even though she no longer had any crew, she used her two best talents in her favor: her speed and agility, and her ease to provoke. Most dragons would try to chase her in an unachievable attempt to capture her; thus giving Twilight more time.

Unlike her friends, Fluttershy didn't find it so easy. When helping get a basketful of supplies to the emergency room, three dragons cornered her and one of them took her away. Scared, she didn't notice how fast she had gotten outside. The dragon carrying her seemed to be a fast one; but unlike most dragons, enjoyed flying close to the ground. Having her eyes closed, Fluttershy only realized she wasn't feeling the wind on her coat any more, neither the dragon's claw's grip on her. As she opened them, she got even more terrified than before. Just inches from her face, was an even more terrifying and fearsome beast than the dragon who was now lying on the ground, defeated by this beast.

Twilight was just a few more seconds away from being able to drop the statue. Unfortunately, Applejack and Pinkie Pie's supplies ran out; leaving the three of them exposed to the dragons. Furious at these ponies, six dragons cornered and ambushed them. Pinkie Pie ducked as she found herself defenseless but Applejack seemed prepare to give the first dragon that came near her famous apple bucking. She successfully knocked the first dragon that rushed over them, but other two held her down after doing so.

When the other three dragons headed towards Pinkie Pie, the defenseless party pony, she began feeling shivers and tickles; and following her Pinkie instincts, she evaded the dragons' grip on her not only once, but every one of them! It looked as if she was some sort of dancer, by elegantly dodging the beasts and moving in funny and rhythmical ways: doing summersaults, rolling, disappearing and appearing out of nowhere, and doing cartwheels. Despite facing such fearsome beasts, she was having fun.

Inevitably, she was finally caught by the dragons. Twilight fortunately had finished sheltering the needed ponies, and sealing the entrance. As she looked back to her friends, she was quickly horrified by the sight. Not so long ago the castle was full of ponies; now all she could see was Rainbow Dash escaping at all speed from her dragon pursuers and Applejack and Pinkie Pie, both captured. Quickly thinking, she teleported her friends out of the dragons' grip; bringing all the dragons' attention to her.

Tired, Rainbow Dash joined the four of them; now cornered by a dozen of dragons. The fearsome beasts didn't rush over them; they already saw how Applejack countered their charges and Pinkie Pie easily evaded everything. When Twilight couldn't think of any possible way of escaping, they all heard a loud roar, different from the one of the dragon that crashed into the castle first. This sound however, seemed more like from a mammal creature; somehow the roar sounded like a lion's. Turning around, they spotted Fluttershy hovering over one of her most fiery animal friends; a manticore.

The dragons froze at the sight of the beast that rampaged towards them. If the dragons were bigger they wouldn't have any problem at all, but they wouldn't fit inside the castle at all though; so it was up to the small ones that were left to try to take the five remaining ponies even if they had to pass through a manticore. The dragons splat in two groups; six would try to settle the manticore and the other six would capture the five ponies. This seemed a lot fairer; six dragons wouldn't be enough to handle Applejack's strength, Rainbow Dash's speed, Pinkie Pie's pinkieness, and Twilight's magic; nor could six dragons tame the manticore, Fluttershy knew so.

As expected, the manticore had no trouble with the dragons rounding it. It grabbed a dragon with its scorpion tail and tossed it against another one; once they were on floor, it jumped on them and loudly roared in their faces. Experiencing such an intense fear, the dragons fell unconscious. The four remaining dragons intended to burn the beast to death, but even though it was four dragons' concentrated fire, the manticore's wings created such powerful wind gusts that the flames wouldn't even get close to it before they vanished; that, and the fact that the dragons couldn't produce strong fire if scared, they get shivers.

Giving up, the four dragons joined the other six, who were almost in the same situation: two dragons were practically dancing with Pinkie Pie's evasive moves and most of the times hitting themselves in the process. Rainbow Dash was dizzying and tiring other two dragons by spinning around them, and Twilight provided all of them with shields whenever she heard Pinkie Pie scream 'fire'. Applejack, only had to wait until the dragons were tired. Once they were, her devastating bucking could knock all of them out.

Foreseeing the inevitable defeat that'd soon arrive, the dragons appealed to their emergency plan. Being fire creatures they had not only the ability to create fire, but big clouds of black smoke. This smoke enveloped the entire room, leaving the ponies blind and coughing, which left them helpless. Rainbow Dash tried to clean the air as soon as possible, flapping her wings as fast as she could. Unfortunately, when the smoke was cleared away, they noticed Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were missing.

* * *

Sorry for the wait, i had exams this month so it's justificable. Hope you enjoyed this chapter,  
see ya/read ya  
Freeda91


	6. The Horned Skull

**The Horned Skull**

Clearing the smoke was both a good and a bad thing. Naturally, they needed clean air to breath and see; on the other hand, Rainbow wished she had never lifted the smoke so she wouldn't see her friends gone. Not only Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, but every pony that was part of their resistance was gone. Having failed at protecting her friends once again, she lay on the floor defeated; it was unnatural to see her that down, at least for Twilight and Applejack, who always thought of her to be in high spirits all the time.

She had a really good reason to feel that way though. The other two ponies realized so as soon as they noticed the same Rainbow did; the disappearance of everypony. All that was left of their resistance was the injured ponies taking shelter in the security room, and a mighty manticore that'd hopefully help them protect them. As for the castle, it had mostly fallen into ruins; the ceiling was barely holding as well as some columns. Regarding for the windows, they no longer existed; there was just the empty space where the crystals used to be. If it wasn't because the big dragon left or at least stopped attacking the structure, the castle would have succumbed.

Applejack helped Rainbow Dash get up by offering her hoof. Accepting her friend's assistance, the rainbow manned pegasus stood up once more and tried as hard as she could to smile, and feel energetic again. She was willing to chase the dragons to the end of the world to recover her friends If she could; which obviously wasn't the case for two reasons: Twilight would turn her into a turtle if she tried to do so; and the reason of the previous, she'd become a toasted rainbow if she faced them just like that.

"You were right Applejack" Twilight commented. The blonde pony looked at her and was prepared to be informed on what she was right about "About the dragons taking ponies prisoners".

"Oh, that." Applejack understood "It's true; except for the manticore, no dragon used fire whatsoever. It seems that Spike's orders are being followed."

"Wait, so you mean that Spike is really forcing dragons not to kill?" Rainbow Dash asked "Is he actually on our side?" She formed a little smile on her face when saying so, which a moment soon turned into a deeply confused expression.

"I don't think so, because now that I think about it" Twilight began "it would be the king who doesn't want ponies dead. Spike can't just order something like that without his permission".

"Are you kidding me?" Rainbow Dash ruffled "He wanted to kill us from the very first time he saw us!"

"Until Spike told him about the elements!" Applejack remembered. Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash kept silent for Applejack to continue "Spike told him that being the wielders of the elements we should be kept prisoners so that our element ownership doesn't pass on to another pony. What the hay did he mean by that Twilight?" Applejack asked a bit confused.

"Well, to tell you the truth I didn't fully read the book about the elements of harmony; so I wouldn't know if it is true or not." Twilight answered lowering her ear in shame; it was embarrassing in her opinion not to have read such an important book completely. She just lost interest after defeating Nightmare Moon.

"Wait a second here, Twilight" Rainbow Dash said. She wanted to ask Twilight two questions; one would be something like 'there's a book you haven't finished yet?' which was more a mock than a question. But she gave priority to the second question in her mind: "if this turns out to be true, it is possible for us to find a new element of generosity wielder and defeat the king?"

Twilight gave it some thought "Maybe".

"Then what are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash jumped and yelled not waiting for Twilight's opinion "Let's get to the library already! If we play our cards right, we might also come across where Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are!"

"Well… it is better than staying here where dragons can find us" Twilight considered. "But we've got to be extremely careful so they don't spot us."

"Twilight, please." Rainbow Dash said showing off "I infiltrated a very well-guarded hospital without even using my wings, remember?"

"What Ah do remember is you waking up all Ponyville when running away from those guards" Applejack pointed out. Both Twilight and she laughed at the expense of Rainbow Dash, who would simply shut up and leave no comment whatsoever. "Ah'm sorry sugarcube" Applejack apologized still chuckling a little "but you asked for it."

"Yeah, whatever" Rainbow replied blushing in embarrassment. Not only she wanted to hurry and save their friends, but she wanted to change the topic as soon as possible. "let's just go."

"Can we trust you to protect these ponies?" Applejack asked the manticore. She was actually surprised when she saw it nodding in response; she thought it wouldn't understand her. It's not like she was Fluttershy and had the ability to communicate with almost any creature. Hearing her friends calling for her, Applejack got out of her trance and followed behind them, soon catching up with them.

On their way to the underground tunnel they happened to encounter the full-grown dragon that had attacked the castle's structure back before the dragons came inside. They would have panicked, if it wasn't for it being asleep. The mighty brown beast was laying in what seemed a very uncomfortable way on the castle's roof, which was resistant enough not to fall down. Twilight would need to remember that it was the full-grown dragons weakness: sleep. They must have been up for weeks, and would soon enter their one-hundred-years sleep, or well a unicorn could easily perform a spell to make them fall asleep in that condition.

They ignored it and went inside the bad smelling tunnel through the sewers. Having a couple of minutes before getting to the exit closest to the library, Twilight used them to think on recent things while Applejack and Rainbow Dash argued about Rainbow's hospital infiltration. They would have made a competition while they were at it, like a race to the library through the tunnels; but they needed Twilight's magic to lighten the place, or they get more lost than Derpy fetching birds on Winter Wrap Up.

Was it really possible to replace Rarity with somepony else to be the element of generosity? Rainbow Dash's suggestion was indeed a very intriguing subject for Twilight; if the elements of harmony really passed on to other ponies after the wielder's decease, then they should focus all their efforts into finding that new element holder. Then again, when Nightmare Moon was sent to the Moon, and thus Celestia and Luna losing their bond to the elements of harmony, these simply passed on to Twilight and the rest; the elements did change holders in this case, only both lost their attachment to them. On the other hand, Twilight couldn't only think about Celestia and Luna's relationship; she needed to go even further back in time. The elements of harmony had always existed; they originally belonged to the founders of Equestria. Even before they had gotten to the library, Twilight already knew that the elements did pass on through generations; only she didn't exactly know under what conditions. Could just one member be raplaced? Or they'd completely lose their bond with their elements?

* * *

Having exited safely into a dark corner of the street, they realized how unlucky they were not to have their dragon costume with them; sure Spike would recognize it, but it would have helped them get through the streets more easily. Anyhow, being as careful as possible and with the help of the dark atmosphere of the night and smoke covered sky, they managed to arrive at the library undiscovered by hiding on every corner they found and making close to no sound whatsoever. The Golden Oaks Library was just in front of them, and fortunately, there was no dragon around they should be aware of.

"I'm glad you two stopped fighting on the way here, they could have heard you and we'd be done for." Twilight whispered while heading to the library's door. Although she expected Rainbow Dash or Applejack, but specially Rainbow Dash, to defend, it was not the case; as they were too busy being careful unlike Twilight. Before getting to open the library's door, the lavender coated unicorn felt the grip of a rope on her tail; soon to that, she was pulled back sharply and fell on the ground, only to be dragged into a bush and next to her friends.

"What'd you do that for?" Twilight complained in a dangerously loud whisper as she got up on her hooves "It hurt"

"Ah'm sorry sugar cube, but while you were so hurried to get in you didn't notice something" Applejack explained by pointing to the window. Twilight understood as soon as she saw it: the lights were on. Applejack had just saved her from entering in a rush and getting ambushed by whoever was inside.

Despite the possibility that it could be a trap specially designed for her, Twilight still wanted to take a peer so she'd at least know who was touching her precious books. Perhaps she'd be lucky and no one was there, perhaps there was a pony. But most importantly, they needed to find that book.

"Rainbow Dash, can you get us hidden between the tree's branches?" the unicorn asked her friend. In order to see who it was inside she'd need a better point of view, as well as being hidden in case some dragon came by.

"No problem" Rainbow Dash replied, and began by holding Twilight from her hooves and lifting her in the air for that she could drop her softly in the thick leaves covered branches of the tree. "It sure has grown messy since we left, hasn't it?"

Upon bringing Applejack up too, the three ponies now had the perfect viewing angle needed for spying. Carefully and slowly, Twilight used her magic to slide the curtain to a side and allow the full view of the room. What the curtain revealed was not too much of a surprise; other than the couple of dragons that were playing with Twilight's bed and doing a book fight by throwing books at each other, which bothered Twilight a lot, there was Spike reading a book that seemed familiar to the unicorn, though she couldn't get any single clue on which one it was from her position.

The unicorn was intrigued by Spike reading a book; she knew he used to read a lot just like her, but being the enemy he had some sort of seriousness on his face when concentrating on the pages of those dusty books unlike the happy times, when Spike would feel forced to focus with such intensity into reading a book; he'd rather do chores that required more activity. At some point, Spike's concentration broke when one of the books the other dragons- Chomp and Ace- where throwing at each other, hit him on the head. The laughs of the dragons turned into complete silence as Spike got up from his chair and magically lifted the book that hit him before looking at the two scared dragons with a frown. The book was indeed levitating due to a magic act; covered by an emerald green glowing aura.

"I'm in a good mood tonight" Spike calmed himself down and began to reorder the books that had been used as toys by magically placing them in the correct shelves "But could you guys please cut it out? I'm trying to study"

Twilight was awe-struck; she had actually seen Spike lift those books with magic! The stories turned out to be true, and like White, Spike received those abilities from the unicorn that hatched him; in this case Twilight of course. Rainbow Dash and Applejack shared a similar feeling with Twilight; only for they didn't know anything about magic, they couldn't say much.

"And clean this mess up!" Spike ordered furiously "I didn't allow you to skip tomorrow's invasion for free."

"Y-yes boss" Both Dragons instantly replied and carried on with their labor of tidying every corner of the library. Using their tails as brooms was very useful for this, and his wings help them get to places Spike had never been able to.

Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all gasped silently when they heard Spike. There was going to be an invasion the next day?! Where was what they needed to hear if so. Anyhow, they were only three ponies, so stopping it was out of their control; all they could do right now was rescuing their friends. There was a bright side to his however; since most dragons would be off in the invasion to wherever they were going, most likely Canterlot, Ponyville would be under protected and that'd give them the perfect opportunity to rescue their friends and take their home back. But they needed to at least have something planned, so they could take advantage of every single minute of the dragons' absence.

The library's door suddenly let open by a white magic aura, to let inside King White himself. Spike made a reverence as soon as he saw him; Chomp and Ace took some more time to take notice of his presence and in a shock of surprise they jumped back, only to knock down a pile of books Spike had been organizing, which made the small dragon frown even deeper at them. Finally the dragons made a reverence that ended up in them falling to the floor by Spike's magic. The two of them understood his anger and quickly reordered the books in the best way they could.

Spike once again turned to face the king, who for Spike's and the ponies' surprise, was carrying with his magic aura nopony else than Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Spike looked in confusion at his mentor, while Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack gasped silently once again, only with more shocking expressions. So lucky to find them, so unlucky they were with him.

"My faithful student" White began "Since it looks like Garble hasn't informed you yet, today's hunt has proven to be a success and we happened to capture over 40 ponies. And if my memory doesn't fail, these two were some of the elements of harmony" He said pointing to said ponies "Could you please confirm my thoughts?" He asked way too nicely for Spike's comfort. He hadn't got used to his master being that nice yet since the first times he had been really strict; but it was thanks to that that he actually managed to pull off all the magic tricks he had learned that month.

"You've gotten it all right my king" Spike replied back with the same style of speech as his mentor "Allow me to introduce you to Pinkie Pie, element of Laughter…" He said pointing to the pink coated pony, who waved her hoof at the white dragon friendly "…and Fluttershy, element of Kindness." Fluttershy was scared to death; curled into a ball and covering her eyes from everything and wishing she could cover her ears as well. Maybe if she had been born a tree that wouldn't have been a problem.

"Excellent!" a big happy and completely unexpected smile formed on White's face; not once had Spike seen him this happy. "That takes two elements off the list! And just in time for tomorrow's attack."

"Let me guess, I'm in charge of security, am I?" Spike asked the king in a somewhat depressed expression.

"You very well know why you cannot come, Spike." White answered back placing his hand on the little dragon's shoulder "You're a baby dragon. You don't have wings for quick movement, and even though you have magic like me, you're still in training. It's just too risky to send you into the battlefield."

"It's unfair" Spike complained "I set up most of the organization for tomorrow!"

"And you did a magnificent job; and that's exactly why you deserve this, let's call it break. Chomp and Ace, and Garble for not showing up in time to give you the news, will be staying here with you as well; so you don't have to be alone." The white dragon said looking at the two dragons doing their best effort to arrange the books alphabetically and failing miserably.

"It sounds more like a punishment to me" Spike commented, causing Pinkie Pie and White to chuckle, once again something quite unusual for Spike.

"Come on, Spike" White cheered the small dragon up by patting him on his back "you won't even need to do any work at all! What could three ponies…"

"And a manticore" Pinkie Pie cut off. White's usual frown returned once again and stared at the pink pony. Pinkie shut up and White went on.

"What could three ponies… and a manticore do?" finished White rolling his eyes.

Spike didn't answer; he took for granted that it was a rhetorical question. Instead, he grabbed a different book from the pile he had specially arranged and opened it on a marked page. He wanted to resume his reading since White had nothing else of importance to tell him; and if so, he could still read anyway.

"That' rude Spike" White frowned "But I'm leaving, so it doesn't really matter"

White was about to leave, already opening the door with his magic, when the door opened in an out of his control move. Surprisingly for the king, Garble was the one showing up so late; this was the reason White glared so deeply. Garble knew he had committed a big mistake, and even though he'd have preferred to leave, he decided to face whatever punishment the king would give him; after all if he fled, it could only worsen it.

"What is your excuse for failing to deliver the notice I sent you to?" White asked the red dragon, not taking his stare out of him, making the dragon feel indescribably uncomfortable.

"Well…" Garble defended himself taking something out of a bag. Spike, and the ponies looked in shock as the dragon took out a skull with what obviously was a horn; in other words, a unicorn's skull, with heavy burn marks on it… "Spike once asked me to find any remain of the body of the pony he burned our first night here. And today I found this between the ruins of the house he destroyed when doing so."

"Your highness, please excuse him" Spike said "He is telling the truth"

"And why would you want this trash?" White asked raising an eyebrow.

Spike took the skull out of Garble's hands with his magic and dropped it on his desk "Because It is a trophy for me. Besides, I was really fond of that pony." He tried his best not to blush when saying this, and incredibly he hid it.

Meanwhile, the three ponies eavesdropping at the window and the two captured ones shared the same expression: anger and sadness. It had been confirmed, Spike killed Rarity; and one of the dragons found the body. Even though they had already gotten over their friend's loss, they couldn't help crying at least a little. Rainbow Dash, unlike the others, gritted her teeth in an instinctive act showing her anger off; she'd have rushed inside and unleash her anger at the dragons, especially Spike. It was a really strange feeling, seeing one of your friends with anger enough to kill the bastard; and for Rainbow Dash he very well deserved it. She wasn't stupid though; revealing themselves would blow their last chance to save their friends.

Applejack couldn't believe what was happening, and once again felt invaded by the thought, or even better, wish, that it was all a dream or illusion caused by Discord. She couldn't face the truth about this, and would have preferred it was all a lie; any reality but this one would be great for her. Too bad a lie is the illusion itself that covers the absolute and inevitable truth that hunted her soul. Next time she had the opportunity to face Spike, she was sure she'd buck the soul out of that lizard.

Twilight was in the worst possible mental situation. With all the things that were in her mind, now this had to take all her attention? If it wasn't enough with worrying about the captured and even the free ponies, her missing owl, and thinking as hard as she could to conceive a plan to help all the previous, now only terrible feelings would poison her heart. At first she was confused, being both proud for being the one who hatched such a powerful dragon, and scared because of his affiliate. Now the pride vanished, and was replaced by a cold hate; instead of being proud of herself she felt embarrassed for having raised Spike. She should have never even entered the magic school; resigning to her dreams was incomparable to prevent losing her friends in that way.

Twilight didn't notice until it was already too late, but the anger taking over her heart was focusing in her horn. Without knowing she was accumulating magic enough to blow the whole library up! This didn't occur though, but what did happen was the branch she was standing on breaking due to pressure and making her and Applejack fall. The loud thump of them hitting the ground caused what they were trying to avoid: the dragons found out their presence.

Twilight hurried in getting up and run the hay out of there. Unfortunately, by the time she managed to recover from her fall, White was already in front of her with a sadist smile set on the standing unicorn, and with a glance he spot Applejack and Rainbow Dash; the other two missing ones. Everything was blown now. The only chance they had of rescuing their friends when the dragons were absent was not a possibility since they'd most probably get captured by the powerful dragon's magic. Twilight could only think of one thing that could help them, teleporting away; though they were too far away from her to teleport all at once. So what was the next best thing? Creating three really small force fields around her friends; that way his magic wouldn't work on them.

"Why, I detect some all-consuming anger in you" White could tell just by looking at the unicorn's face; she was practically growling. "Also I can see you have been spying and you know about tomorrow" The king correctly assumed.

"What a surprise to see you, Twilight" Spike ironically said, glaring at the unicorn "It has been a while, hasn't it?"

Twilight's growl was now sounding like a roar; her anger multiplying by each second she saw the purple dragon. King White was invisible to her now, all she could see red was Spike. But what could she do, if she dispelled her barriers her friends would be caught; and they couldn't flee either, who knew how long could Twilight keep her spell up.

"You will get tired of this sometime" Spike pointed out.

"Oh no" Twilight finally spoke up "I can go on with it all night long"

Spike noticed Twilight's, Applejack's, and Rainbow's angry expressions, and realized they must be wishing for a chance to beat him up; that gave the small dragon an idea. He turned to White and signaled him to come closer so he could whisper to him. As he did, Spike told him his idea; the king beamed.

"What do you say about this, ponies?" White began, trying to sound as kind as possible to make them trust "We reckon you want a piece of Spike" he pointed said dragon "So why don't we make a bet?" White was smiling in what looked like an evil way; nothing the dragon said could be thought as friendly. What was his aim?

"A bet?" Twilight sounded interested.

"That's right" White replied and then explained "If you manage to defeat Spike, I'll give the five of you freedom." He said levitating the two captured ponies closer to him. "And if you lose…well, you definitely lose." He was now on a serious look which somehow was more reassuring that his smiling.

Perhaps it was because of her high levels of anger corrupting her thinking, or the fact that she couldn't really think of any other way out; but mostly her wanting revenge. Even though she had full knowledge that this dragon was under no condition, of trust, she accepted. "Deal" she yelled furiously. Her two friends were almost as pumped up as Twilight was.

"Well then, here's the rules" Spike explained "Twilight, since you have some strong magic, you get to fight last. Applejack and Rainbow Dash, you can come at me at the same time; though I should blindfold myself to make it really fair." The dragon taunted; as expected it worked really well on the competitive ponies, who felt angry as a bull.

For the ponies comfort, White moved away from them. When he did so, Twilight let go of her spell; allowing Rainbow Dash and Applejack to face the dragon. At the same time it left them vulnerable to White's magic, so she'd keep a constant eye on him.

"Come at me" Spike taunted even more the ponies. Rainbow Dash was far sick of that, and rushed at him at full speed. Spike however, managed to create a force field of his own to protect himself from the pony; Rainbow Dash, unable to stop, ended up stamped against the barrier. It felt like hitting a rock, it hurt. "Don't tell me this is too much for you already; I should have really covered my eyes!"

"Don't you ever underestimate mah bucking" Applejack frowned in concentration as she gave the barrier a full-powered kick with her back hooves, strong enough to leave a tree not only apple less, but leafless. The result, a big crack appeared where the kick had impacted; and as it expanded, the barrier broke definitely. Spike was surprised by this, and such a shock it was that he was unable to defend from the pony's rope bind him. Applejack pulled the dragon back at her, lifting him in the air towards her. Spike knew the following was going to hurt, and how right he was! Just like a toy racket, he was heavily kicked away and when he got as far as the rope could reach, he was pulled back only to receive another dose of pain. Even Spike's fellow dragons could feel the pain of her blows.

On his way to Applejack's third heavy buck, he saw his chance to live and performed a spell he had once cooperated with Twilight to make: shapeshipting things, only this time he tried it on himself. In a flash, the small dragon turned into an enormous, heavy boulder; rolling over the earth pony and crushing her against the ground. It didn't matter how resistant Applejack was, that was one tough attack; she didn't break any of her bones, luckily, but she did pass out however. Spike on the other hand, returned to his normal self after a couple of seconds. When so, he seemed confused; for being a rock meant he had no senses at all! He turned around and howled in victory as the earth pony lay on the ground. Too soon to his dismay, since Rainbow Dash was headed his way at full speed. With another friend of hers hurt, Rainbow's pride hit rock bottom. It was her own purpose to protect them; and yet she was failing terribly. If she was angry before, imagine her now.

Spike created once again his force field. But this time, Rainbow Dash managed to stop on time not to hit herself with it. If she couldn't use a direct attack, she could try something else; like lifting the dragon and his shield at the same time by creating a tornado around him. The pegasus flew around the dragon at blinding speed, lifting winds of dangerous levels. It wasn't strong enough to lift Applejack, who was closeby; not to mention any of the dragons. But taking on account Spike's light weight, he was easily lifted by these currents.

The spinning movement caused Spike to have nauseas, as well as losing his concentration; dispelling the barrier. Furthermore, the dragon was over ten meters above the ground level when the wind ceased. Magic or not, he wouldn't survive that fall! Still lacking ideas, he noticed how fast he began to fall. He felt the increasing wind on his face and the panic and adrenaline running through his blood; perhaps Rainbow Dash enjoyed this feeling, but the dragon sure wasn't. The desperate dragon happened to spot a hay cart that was conveniently close to them. Using his magic, he quickly moved it below him; and not a moment too soon, for he almost didn't make it to the spot he was going to fall to. Having landed on the soft hay he was now in love with for saving his life, he took a couple of seconds to recover some air and stop the dizziness.

"Let's see how you like spell number 16" Spike said while standing up. He moved the hay cart to a side and concentrated; his hand seemed to be glowing in green, of course that was his magic focusing. Then , he summoned strong gusts of wind, which became a small tornado round Rainbow Dash; not as strong as Rainbow's, but the enough to make the desired effect: spin Rainbow Dash into an indescribable dizziness.

Tired from the beat up he received from Applejack, and almost dying from last fall, Spike decided to stop playing around and finish the fight so he could rest his aching back and head. He held Rainbow Dash with his magic grip and hit her with the ground, then lifted her again and hit the ground again; and again. Finally, he lifted Rainbow Dash one more time into the air and moved her in a big circle, gaining more and more speed like it was Rainbow Dash itself who was flying, until he finally launched her against the hay cart; knocking her out and destroying the cart in the process. Rainbow Dash had obviously resisted even harsher crashes during her practice sessions, but being dizzy had an extra bonus that gave Spike such an advantage. Two ponies down, only Twilight to go, and his tiredness could be clearly seen.

"O-okay, T-Twilight…" Spike panted "Just give me a second" he asked giving loud gasps.

Twilight was incredibly mad, but had had the time to calm down at least a bit and think what she was doing. She had lost her chance of running away and she couldn't carry with her two unconscious ponies even if she teleported; she'd be discovered soon if she did so. Apparently, her only choice was to stay and face her assistant. She had two clear advantages over him: he was really tired from before, and she had a lot more experience in magic than him. If only White was to keep his words, she'd get away with her four friends!

When Spike glared back at Twilight, she knew that was the time for her to act. She quickly performed a test spell; illusionary copies. Even though she had already used this spell to overhear the dragons' speech upon Rarity's death, this time it was completely different; instead of three copies, she managed to create over twenty of them, and they deployed surrounding the confused dragon.

"That's new" Spike noticed. He couldn't really differentiate the real Twilight once she switched places with the copies a couple of times. And they all had the same look on their face, an angry and focused frown on the purple dragon.

Not knowing which one was the real one, Spike decided to take a wild guess. He shot from his hand a light green magical beam that hit a Twilight and made her fall back a little. At the same time, all the fake Twilights disappeared; he had hit the real one!

"Well that was lucky" Spike laughed at Twilight for failing in her strategy to confuse the dragon, and before the lavender unicorn could strike back, Spike shot another beam at the unicorn. He failed though, or did he? In fact, he failed on purpose, for his true target was the ground below her so that a cloud of dust would lift, blinding the unicorn.

Twilight lifted the dust cloud as quickly as she could by summoning a light but fast wind current. However, she failed in doing it fast enough to avoid having Spike next to her with a fully-charged-close-distance magic blast prepared to be fired. Even before the thought of teleporting, or creating a force field, or even react at all, Spike had fired his powerful blast at the unicorn. The force of the magic was such, that Twilight was blasted away and landed on the ground far from where she originally was and rolling back. It took Twilight some time to recover from that attack; she had never expected Spike to be able to deal so much damage on her. Play time was over, now Twilight was really furious, and hurt.

"What's the problem Twilight?" Spike teased "I thought you were going to avenge Rarity" Spike's words were a real slap on the unicorn's face, waking her from her thinking. "But by the way things are going; you couldn't have helped her even if you were there." That was it! Twilight couldn't stand what Spike was saying. Even if he used to be her brother, he would suffer for everything he had done.

"You…" Twilight muttered, a bright purple glow around her horn, a lot of magic focusing at the same time. "You have crossed the line for the last time" Twilight's eyes were different; apart from showing a great deal of anger, her pupils and her whole eyes started to get covered by the same bright magic energy around her horn, her mane started to levitate slightly as well as her tail. This freaked Spike out, but not as much as the small lightning that came from her horn's overaccumulated magic. One of these hit a tree's branch, setting it on fire instantly. It looked like Twilight had reached a never before attained state of anger, where her magic fluctuated in dangerous quantities, and actually looked a little darker. Spike noticed how Twilight was unaware of how dangerous she was, even for the rest of the ponies. Using his magic, he pushed Rainbow Dash and Applejack further away from her, and just in time, for a lightning to strike where they had been.

Unfortunately for Spike when he did so he left himself unprotected, and received a powerful magic blast from Twilight. The small dragon didn't even have time to protect himself at all; the blast was too fast. Spike was blasted away just like he had done with Twilight not so long ago, only so faster that he crashed and broke through the library's wooden wall. He hit his head really hard when he did so, and consequently, passing out. His body didn't remain there untouched however; for Twilight levitated him in front of her and despite the fact the small creature was no longer a menace, the anger-blind Twilight was already preparing another powerful blast; this time to end him.

"That's enough!" White interrupted by teleporting the dragon away from the unicorn. It seems he had the power to do that even if Spike was under Twilight's magic. The raging Twilight didn't take this nicely, and shot the blast on White instead. This one created a force field of his own, and even though it cracked at the single hit, he didn't flinch at all unlike his apprentice. King White laughed evilly before adding "by attacking me like that, you broke our deal! Your friends are mine!" It was obvious White wouldn't keep his word, but Twilight couldn't listen to reason anyway; she was trapped in her own anger.

Having said so, he used his magic to create a circle of ghostly blue fire around the unicorn. Twilight found out when trying to shoot another blast, that her magic was blocked. In a matter of seconds, her horn stopped concentrating all her magic, her mane and tail went back to obey laws of gravity, and her eyes went back to normal. With her magic drained, and thus her anger, she suffered an awful migraine; the next thing, she fainted out of mental exhaustion.

* * *

Hello everybody! once again i'm terribly sorry for the late upload; but it was really hard to write the fight scene (and i'm not sure it turned out as good as in my head). BTW, feel free (or obliged) to send me a comment/review on my grammar. I am having a writing exam soon and i should know if i make too many mistakes and how to fix them (i don't know if i mentioned this, but i'm Mexican), so... please?  
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and see ya/read ya.  
Freeda91

Oh i almost forgot! The Crystal Empire was awesome!


	7. Warm Heart

**Warm Heart**

Twilight suffered from a terrible headache as she woke up. She could hear voices calling her to wake up, murmuring something; she couldn't really tell, it was like her senses were stupid due to her black out. Nevertheless, she managed to open her eyes, and come face to face with a wide smiling Pinkie Pie staring at her with her bright soul piercing eyes that could spread happiness everywhere. Wasn't Twilight so confused and tired from her headache, she would have jumped back from the surprise.

"Oh, thank Celestia you're up!" Cried Pinkie Pie.

Twilight looked around while her senses recovered and everything started to make sense in her head; the pain wouldn't cease, but at least she could tell where she was. As she suspected by waking up not remembering anything from the previous night and with a terrible pain, they must have lost the bet; and just like she thought, they had been captured and were now in a cold, dark cell. No windows would light the place; the only source was a couple of small torches that barely allowed them to see their faces. Two midsized dragons were guarding the hall; both looked terrified as soon as they saw the unicorn stand up.

"What's with them?" Twilight asked, pointing to said guards.

"Stand back unicorn!" One of the guards screamed; his voice broken and filled with fear "And don't try any tricks, King White made this cell magic-proof." Why was the dragon so afraid of Twilight? Apparently there was something important that her amnesia deleted from her memory.

"What happened last night? Did Spike actually beat the three of us?" Twilight asked. Nor Applejack or Rainbow Dash wanted to answer, they felt embarrassed by this fact; especially Rainbow Dash, once again failing at protecting her friends. Fluttershy was about to answer, when Pinkie Pie cut off.

"Of course he didn't!" She yelled "you went mad and became… wild" she tried to explain in her own pinkie way "launching magic beams everywhere and lightning; then it was like BOOM! And then…" The pink pony tried her best to explain what had happened, but she let her excitement take the worst of her and became completely incomprehensible. Luckily Rainbow Dash was there to block the pony's mouth with her hooves; Pinkie Pie splitting large quantities of saliva on the pegasus' hooves.

"Thank you, Rainbow" Twilight sighed; then allowed the pegasus to answer.

"Fluttershy told me…" Rainbow Dash began "that you went mad from anger, and lost control over your magic. You crashed Spike into the library, and almost hit Applejack and me…" during the last sentence she sounded quite angry; Twilight laughed shyly.

"But… I did win, didn't I?" Asked the unicorn, to what Rainbow Dash simply nod "then why are we here?"

"What do you think happened?" asked Rainbow Dash rhetorically before continuing "King White captured us anyway; he cast some sort of spell on you, and you wore out."

"So they're afraid of my power…" Twilight told herself in a quiet voice when she understood why the guards reacted like the way they did "I wonder if White is afraid to."

Twilight wanted to ask something to Rainbow Dash, but when she turned to face her, she saw the pegasus lying on the ground, playing with a stone. She felt hopeless; they were prisoners now, and all of Equestria would fall under the power of the dragons if they didn't get out somehow. What else could she do? Without magic, she had no way of getting away from there; and even if they did, they still wouldn't be able to stop the invasion without a game plan; they didn't even know where it would be, although it must probably be in Canterlot. That brought another problem; the princesses would be too busy defending the capital and thus unable to rescue them from their prison.

Twilight tried using a spell; it didn't matter which one, it was only to make sure if her magic worked or not. Like the dragons said, her magic didn't focus at all. Even if she tried her hardest, all she did was tire herself out and strengthen her headache. One last time she used all her focus and incredibly, a small amount of magic focused on her horn. However, it was so little it'd barely be enough to be used as a lightening spell. In fact, it was so small that the dragons that had their full attention on the unicorn didn't even notice the glow. Defeated, Twilight fell on the ground and decided to take some rest; between the headache consuming her, and the uselessness of her magic, there was clearly nothing else better to do. Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day, if there was a tomorrow.

* * *

Two hours passed and the room was filled with a cold silence that not only made everypony feel uncomfortable, meaning that their opportunity to rest was gone; especially for the debilitated Twilight. All the peace and quiet in the room was suddenly interrupted by a third guard rushing into the hall, panting; he seemed to be really agitated and surprised. The other two offered him a seat to calm down; but this one simply refused. Before doing anything else, like breathing, he explained the other guards that there were intruders in the building.

"Intruders?" asked a guard, fear taking over him "Who is it? Is it Celestia?"

"I don't think so" replied the other "but it is a white coated unicorn." The three guards decided that reprimanding the intruder was far more important than watching over the ponies, so they doubtlessly left the room and closed the door behind them.

'A white coated unicorn?' Twilight thought. Could it be her brother that had come looking for her? Had her letter finally reached her destination? She could only hope. Shining Armor was the only one that fitted such a vague description, and powerful enough to come to their aid. Although right now she was just glad someone had come, providing it was a friend of them.

"Pinkie, what's your problem?" Asked Applejack to the shivering pony. She knew the cell was really cold, but Pinkie's shivers were exaggerated; if it was her Pinkie sense, what was it trying to say?

"I-It's m-my p-p-pinkie s-sense" Pinkie explained in a very noticeable stutter. Applejack rolled her eyes; she already knew that, she only wanted to know the meaning. "I-it tells me there's going to be a d-doozy" And one heck of a doozy, for Pinkie to shiver so uncontrollably.

"Don't worry" Twilight tried to calm everypony down "If my brother is here, nothing will stop him from rescuing us!" It was at that moment that Twilight's hopes crashed against the ground. The moment when silence was the only thing that could be heard; even the screaming from the fighting dragons had stopped. Only silence followed the appearance of the giant green flame that blasted the door open, leaving a trace of smoke and small fire trails around. Not even Shining Armor could survive such blast from a full-grown dragon.

Apart from the trembling fear Twilight felt when feeling the extreme heat that might have ended her brother, her intuition took over her mind and doubts covered her mind. That blast was obviously from a full-grown dragon, but how and why would a full-grown dragon be inside the building? First of all, it wouldn't fit; secondly, it wouldn't fit. Despite being the same reason, it was obvious enough to have in mind twice. As her second suspicion arose, so did a terrible fear; could it have been White? It made a lot of sense. They had never seen the dragon in action despite for his magic, nopony ever saw his fire; and given the fact that he's all that mighty as he speaks about himself, it could be possible that he could produce a full-grown dragon's fire breath in spite of his size. It seemed the rest of the ponies, except Pinkie Pie, shared the same feeling of fear; maybe even the idea of White annihilating whoever was to rescue them.

From the smoke came a shadowy figure, not as big as they were expecting it to be if it was indeed White, yet it could be because of the smoke that they couldn't see clearly. It could be seen however, that whoever was coming inside was a unicorn, as they could manage to spot the horn on top of the pony's head. For a moment Twilight beamed, had her brother succeeded in infiltrating their prison and would come to free them, they would finally be able to turn the tables. Her happiness turned into confusion once again when she saw an even smaller shadow next to the other one; definitely non pony and strangely recognizable. The smaller one was confirmed to be Spike as soon as they heard his boyish voice.

"And then she went like…boom!" explained Spike to the other shadow. The bigger shadow made a sigh before saying anything with her sweet, feminine voice.

"I'm afraid I don't follow what you're saying, also I don't get how such a small, lovely creature can have such hot flames inside" flattered the bigger shadow. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all but Pinkie gasped in disbelief as they saw the thought to be dead Rarity coming out of the smoke carrying a suitcase with her magic and followed by Spike. Twilight had just had a terrible dream, and woke up only to think she was still asleep. She pinched herself a couple of times to confirm if it was reality, because it certainly didn't look like. Or perhaps her migraines had reached a higher level of pain that were causing her to have visions? It was definitely not the case, and unlike ever before they all but Pinkie were completely, absolutely awe struck.

"Because my love for you keeps my heart warm…" Spike tried to sound as charming as possible. It worked, for it made a light blush form in the unicorn's cheeks. "…and I ate a bunch of coal with hot sauce." …He had to kill the mood sometime.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this… awkward situation" began Rainbow Dash; she was the first one to recover from the surprise of seeing Rarity again. All the others but Pinkie shared the same priceless surprised expression; with their mouths widely opened they wouldn't even react to a fly getting inside their throat. "But could you cut the cheesy stuff and explain us what in the name of Celestia is happening? Also, could you open the cell?" Rainbow Dash asked in her usual angry tone. "I must say Pinkie, I see why you shivered so much" she told her pink friend after taking a quick sigh. Pinkie however, was still shivering and even more.

"Are you crazy? T-that wasn't the d-doozy!" Pinkie explained while shivering at the same time "Everyone saw that one coming!" she finally said.

"Everyone?" asked Rainbow Dash once again not following Pinkie Pie.

"Spike, did you not tell them?" Asked Rarity to the small dragon beside her. By the looks of surprise from their friends she could tell he hadn't.

"I'm sorry" apologized Spike "but with the other dragons keeping an eye on me all the time and not knowing where they were to send a message I never had the chance to do so." He laughed shyly and turned to open the gate, when he found out he had forgotten the key. He was about to go fetch it, when he noticed Pinkie Pie shiver even more, and the imprisoned ponies looked terrified; why would that be?

"Spike, behind you!" Cried Twilight; pointing to the creature that had lurked into the room without them knowing. Spike turned around, only to see a furiously looking Garble glaring at him, and grinding his teeth. The dragon took a deep breath and everypony knew what was to follow so they prepared themselves to suffer the rampaging dragon's fire they were currently defenseless to, unless Spike used his magic.

"Hey Spike!" the dragon exhaled at once in a loud voice scaring and confusing the locked up ponies "You forgot the key, shrimp" he said placing said key on the baby dragon's open hand.

"Thanks buddy!" before turning around to open the door, Spike greeted the dragon who was now glaring at him once again, and this time seriously.

"How many times should I tell you? We are not friends!" Shouted the angry dragons "we're only allies" After all they had been through together the entire month, Spike didn't believe his words, but Spike knew the dragon was proud enough to never confess their friendship was more like a rivalry. Now Spike had his magic going for him, so whenever they started a play fight he wasn't so easy to take on.

As stated before, the ponies went from scared, to a deep confusion almost as much as seeing Rarity back. Only this time even Pinkie Pie seemed to be surprised; as a matter of fact, her shivering stopped the very same instant Garble was nice to them. "Well that was a doozy!" she yelled both happily for the stopping of her constant and irritating shiver, and confused because she was terribly so.

Spike was expecting to be received by a hit from his friends whenever he opened the door or a simple push away before they ran to choke Rarity in a tight embrace. However, he was rather surprised to see that nopony, except for Pinkie Pie who ran towards Rarity as expected, would do so. Instead, they would just stare blankly at the three of them: the thought to be dead mare, the supposedly traitor, and the unexpected ally.

It wasn't easy for Twilight to confess that Pinkie Pie was right once again, and she was sure she wouldn't be mentioning it, but sweet Celestia was she glad to see her pale friend once again! She didn't calmly walk towards her to greet friendly in a properly manner, but copied Pinkie Pie and rushed even faster than the party lover and hugged both Spike and Rarity at once. Neither of them saw that coming, especially from Twilight. After a minute or so of an awkwardly heartwarming embrace, Twilight broke apart and let the other four ponies greet their friend as well. It was incredible how clean she was compared to the rest of them, having no time or place to tidy themselves up, they were a mess. But not so long after they all greeted their dear friend, the question arose: What had happened?

"Rarity, where have you been all this time?" asked Twilight "we had taken you for dead" Rarity seemed to be disgusted by her friend's thought, and in response she deepened her frown at Spike.

"Why, I was dealing with some important business with the princess in Canterlot" Rarity answered, not taking her stare from the dragon away, who didn't seem to notice her indirect. "But I guess 'some dragon' should tell all of us how this all started." Spike turned around to look at Rarity and this time he did notice the hint, so after a quick clearing of his throat he proceeded to answer.

"I suppose I owe you at least an explanation" Spike said; everypony nodded in response, including Rarity whose frown wasn't gone yet. "Then I shall begin:"

_It all began the night the dragons came to Ponyville. Their invasion had really struck us unprepared, and as you all might remember, King White cornered us. I remember that moment like it was yesterday. When he asked me to join his dragon army as his very own apprentice. Despite the fact that he was oppressing my friends as was bound to do who knew what to you guys, for a bit it seemed like a tempting deal. On the other hand, I was not going to leave you girls; but although my heart wanted to shout 'no' right at his face and leave with you, that wasn't an option either. You girls were captured, so if I refused he'd have simply captured me as well. However, if I did choose to join him I'd have the opportunity to help you guys! The answer was obvious, and even though I hadn't planned anything in advance, I accepted his invitation and began plotting._

_If I was to ensure that White was to trust me, I had to fully obey him for a while, and somehow manage to help my pony friends at the same time without arousing suspicion. Firstly, I knew I needed a far better reason to join him than just power; so I let everyone, including you, believe that I was indeed furious at how everypony treated me which, even though just a little, was true. Once I made you cry, I wanted to cry as well; but in the end it turned out your crying was the ultimate proof for him. Again, I'm awfully sorry for doing that._

_Trust wasn't such a problem for now, but I still needed to set you free somehow. As a lucky response to that, came the King's test. He wanted me to kill you; I'd have to find an excuse get out of it, but I didn't need to. I'm not sure if I was just lucky or not, that Garble interrupted and minimized me; changing the king's opinion on my test saying I couldn't even capture you as I was. A brilliant idea came to my mind and I immediately pursued him to challenge me to do so. He felt for it and set you guys free._

_I still required to catch at least one of you before I could gain White's approval, so my plan was to do so and somehow rescue her afterwards. Having the two dragons keeping an eye on me I had no choice but to chase the first pony I came across and do my best to capture her. To my dismay, it was Rarity. If anypony I didn't have any intention of hurting it was her, so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to make her feel this betrayed and endangered. Either way, I ended up chasing her until she made it into a house. Obliged to enter, I was surprised to see both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy there. The latter fled instantly, but Rainbow Dash stepped forward and faced my two companions outside; leaving Rarity and me alone. What a perfect moment to explain my…plan in progress._

"_Spike, why are you doing this?" I heard her say with the most cracked voice she ever had "Didn't you love me?" I closed my eyes just after catching a glimpse of the tears running down her cheek that tore my heart apart, I couldn't take it; but I had to._

"_I'm sorry, but I have to do this." I said coldly having in mind that the dragons might still be able to hear me. To avoid that, I hurried to set the room on fire and took Rarity to another one, far back from were Rainbow and the dragons were. I could tell she was in total shock, following me involuntarily without saying a word; but her tears were calming down._

"_I'm sorry I made you cry, Rarity. Please forgive me" I begged, literally on my knees._

"_I-I will, once you explain." She answered._

_I stood once again and told her everything I've said so far, only at one hundred words per second. Honestly I thought she would follow my crazy story, but she did; how wouldn't she? She was Rarity, the most beautiful pony ever. She's best pony!_

_After I finished explaining, and after my twentieth apology, I asked her if she was willing to pass as a prisoner, promising I would be freeing her and making sure she was alright. As much as I disliked it, I had no choice but to use her; I'd have to risk the most important pony in my life. For her part, she didn't answer. She simply stood there, thinking; she was clearly in doubt, and I couldn't blame her; it was a crazy idea itself._

_And she never finished her answer, she never had the chance. From a shadowy corner we saw yet another dragon come out, I never expected to have a third one keeping an eye on me. And as I feared, he had heard my entire conversation. If you think it was Garble, then you're completely right. He glared at me with marked anger, maybe he was here to finish what he had started and had the proof to make him a hero for assassinating the traitor._

"_Well, well, well… Just when I thought you'd be joining us for once, you turn out to be pretending?" Asked Garble, making an irritating chuckle. I immediately stepped in front of Rarity, if he wanted to do something to me, fine, but no one messes with Rarity._

"_Did you actually think I'd leave my friends behind?" I tried to sound intimidating "Of course not! I'd never leave them! And you'll see how they take care of your king!" I shouted full of anger before throwing my best fireball ever. It was hardly a scratch for him, pretending he didn't notice the attack and stepping forward even more menacingly._

"_Tell me Spike, do you really think you have a chance against White?" he asked dangerously close to me._

"_With the elements of harmony on our side, it is you who should be afraid…" I honestly had no phrases left to use, had he said anything else I'd have verbally lost._

"_Then let me tell you… that I'm so glad to hear that" He said sighing._

_I'm not sure what exactly I did in response to what I heard, but I'm certain that not even Pinkie would have seen that coming. There was certainly something interesting happening that was above all the dragon invasion. It was about King White, who was he and what exactly did he want? How exactly did he convince the dragons to invade and what exactly was supposed to be gained from this war. All these questions were answered by Garble, illuminating a whole world, only I would be able to study._

"That's enough Spike" Garble interrupted the young dragon's tale, pushing him sideways "take a break, I'll tell this part of the story" He then continued with the reason behind King White.

_King White was born not so long before me, from an egg hatched by Princess Celestia herself. I didn't know of the existence or importance of neither of them until a recent event, to be more specific, his awakening._

_Spike has read an enormous book on White's origins so he understands this to the perfection, seriously how can he read so quickly? Anyway, what matters right now is who he is. He ruled alongside his brother for a really short time, at least for us dragons, until he was corrupted by a supposedly god of chaos, and almost killed his brother. Celestia and Luna casted a spell on him, and made him fall into deep one thousand years long sleep._

_Upon awakening, the evil dragon immediately turned up in the middle of our domain and demanded us to listen to him. He began saying how he was the rightful ruler of all us dragons, and all that nonsense. Some old dragons recognized his sovereignty, others however denied it. The ones who didn't recognize his power and dared to face him, ended up being either controlled by his magic if they were weak minded, or eliminated if they opposed further resistance. Others not as smart were easily convinced with second hand speeches about what dragons really should have, how he could get it and bla, bla, bla…. Others, smart and at the same time not as proud, or loud, such as Spike and myself, pretended to be loyal to him; thus saving themselves and at the same time allowing us the opposition to fight back sometime, somehow._

_Finally, after White thought he had all the dragons under his command, he announced his plan to take over equestria for 'gemstones', although everyone with a dash of common sense can tell there was another reason; us dragons were very well dotted with resources enough for prosperity. That hidden reason, I assume, must be revenge towards the princesses._

"Honestly Garble" Spike said when the red dragon finished his tiny part of the tale "nopony was really interested in that… as much as they want to know how exactly Rarity made her way to Canterlot"

"Spike is definitely right, er…sugarcube?" said Applejack, unsure whether it was proper or not to call the dragon like that so soon. He didn't seem to bother; his only problem was when Spike called him 'buddy'.

_After hearing Garble's story, both Rarity and I stared at him, unsure whether he was telling the truth or if it was just a lie to make us lower our guards. I had a shaking feeling that he was telling the truth, though honestly I can't explain it. But if he was prone to help me, how exactly would he be doing so?_

"_You've heard our plan; would you be helping me ensuring Rarity's safety? That is, if she's okay with that…" I quickly pointed out remembering she hadn't given me a concrete answer yet; I realize now I sounded a lot like Fluttershy. By that time we saw the fire I created getting a tad closer to us, so we moved further to the back entrance though didn't leave just in case there was a dragon to testify our schemes._

"_I just had a brilliant idea!" Rarity spoke out loud "better than pretending you captured me and keeping me here, why doesn't Garble take me to Canterlot and you pretend you killed me! I remember hearing White saying he'd prefer you did so. Besides, you ensure my safety and I get to fetch the elements of harmony." Rarity's plan was indeed a good one, despite having a couple of flaws. First of all, we weren't one hundred percent sure if Garble was being honest to us at all. Second, even if he was willing to take her there, how would he ensure their safe trip when there were thousands of dragons lurking the skies?_

"_That is a good plan, I give you my word my lady, that I'll protect you from any danger the trip might cause." Garble was actually acting gentlecoltly. To be honest, I felt a little jealous when he spoke like that to Rarity._

"_But Rarity!" I interrupted "we still don't know if he's telling the truth, and how do you pretend he'll protect you from the thousands of dragons lurking the skies?" Seriously, I was awfully worried for her and actually started to forget about my doubts about Garble's loyalty and concerned more on the danger of the trip._

"_Don't you worry, shrimp." Answered Garble, overly confident for my liking "I am a great flier and can easily carry her weight without slowing down a bit; also us dragons have the ability to create a cloud of smoke to hide in."_

"_That sounds safe enough!" Rarity exclaimed cheerfully. Was she thinking about the dangers at all? She sounded too relaxed for a situation like that. "What do you think Spike?" She turned her eyes upon me, hypnotizing me with her beautiful gaze. What did I think? That it was utter madness, on the other hand it seemed like the best option then, and we were running out of time before the fire consumed the building and we had to reveal ourselves._

_I sighed before giving my opinion "I am terribly worried about what might happen to you, and I'll miss you… a lot." I don't usually cry, but when I do I hardly feel it running through my face because of my thick scales. But this time, I don't know why, I felt its chilly path on my scales._

_Rarity hugged me tightly most likely because she could see my concern for her. It felt so warm and calming, that my heart skipped a couple of beats. "Do you believe in my safe return?" I heard her whisper in my ear._

"_I do, and even in the darkest times I will." The tear that was running through my face disappeared, as Rarity cleaned it off with her soft and beautiful hoof; then proceeded to give me a small kiss on my wet cheek._

"_Never stop believing, and I promise I'll return. Here, have this." She said cutting a lock of her hair and giving it to me "You can say you burned me, and that you could only retrieve this" That was the last thing I heard her say before they left, riding on Garble's back and taking off into the horizon towards Canterlot hidden within a cloud of smoke. It would only be temporary; otherwise her health could be in trouble._

_Before I made my way outside to return to the king to give him my inform, I came across a small sapphire which I found to be perfect for a better fake proof than the lock of hair. Using every second I had before the building fell down, I shaped the sapphire into one of my famous sapphire flowers; considering the small time I used on it, it was good enough to pass for the real one. If I could only get you girls to see me smashing it to the ground into pieces, your expressions would be a perfect proof._

_When I arrived with King White and saw your illusionary copies there first I thought they were really you. So I made my little show by crushing the sapphire flower into the ground and seeing how White clapped at my achievement. Unluckily he still wanted to kill you, so I panicked and revealed him the element of harmony thing. Upon seeing how my words attracted his attention, I found out he was indeed afraid of such powers, so I made up the thing about the elements passing down on generations and ensured your safety._

_When you escaped I couldn't be happier. First, you wouldn't be hurt at all… at least physically. Second, in order not to kill any element of harmony wielder, dragons couldn't kill anypony at all, considering they didn't know who you were at all. The only noticeable pony was Rainbow Dash. During the rest of the entire month I'd do kind of a routine: studying magic with White and by myself, organizing the dragon troops, giving said informs to princess Celestia and receiving her answers, making sure every dragon followed the order of 'only prisoners', and last but not least,_ _keeping my heart warm as the Sun Celestia rises every day, by believing in Rarity._

Spike noticed two things upon finishing his tale: a crying of happiness or sadness or whatever Pinkie Pie, and a sleepy Rainbow Dash. Of course she'd feel sleepy, she found most of his tale nothing else but a Spike and Rarity love story, or at least that's how she viewed it, with all of Spike's flattering Rarity.

"And how did you get here?" asked Twilight to her unicorn friend "Garble was here last night so it's impossible that he fetched you"

"Oh, I came in a most fantastic way Twilight" The white unicorn answered "by pegasi pulled carriage, accompanied by Princess Luna herself." She explained "she left to the Everfree Forest just before we came in here; she mentioned something about 'meeting a friend of hers'."

"Wait a second here, if you tricked him to believe that he shouldn't kill any element wielder, how did you cover Rarity? I mean, you supposedly killed an element wielder…" Asked Rainbow Dash; waking up from her boredom.

"That was no problem at all" Spike quickly replied without much thought "At first I thought I'd simply reject any pony he captured from being the sixth. But then I learned an interesting fact, which had a lot to do with the princesses' failure in returning White to harmony." Spike suddenly felt all eyes on him and continued "Neither the princesses or White knew of the existence of the sixth element back then."

"Oh, so he thought there were only 5 of us?" Applejack double checked. Spike nodded in response.

"So what now?" Asked Rainbow Dash. "Do we go kick his rear with the elements of harmony?"

"That's the plan" Spike answered "if we get White back to normal, then the brainwashed dragons are sure to calm down and most likely fall asleep in the act. But Princess Celestia told me to wait here until further notice; she said she'd tell me when the best time to come would be. You know, to avoid fighting an entire dragon army"

"Wait, Princess Celestia is holding back an entire invasion all by herself!?" Twilight yelled at the poor dragon, whose sudden surprise could be told by his goosescales. Not to mention the fact that Twilight had an even more amazing magical power than what everyone ever imagined; last night Spike experienced it firsthand, and would never want to do it again.

"Of course not, Twilight!" Rarity jumped in for Spike; after all, it was her who spent the last month with the princess "During this last month I have been helping princess Celestia form an important alliance with other species." She explained "The buffalos are protecting Appleloosa alongside their residents, the griffins' army is doing the same on Manehattan, and we even convinced a group of Diamond Dogs to help protect Blatimare; dragons' are their natural enemy as they both collect gemstones."

"What about Canterlot?" asked the lavender unicorn "Isn't that were the dragons are headed right now?"

"Yes, it is. But I wouldn't worry that much. After all, not only they have the entire Royal Guard, but Princess Celestia, Cadance, and your brother himself!" finished Rarity.

"That's right Twi" Spike said "even if they somehow get through your brother's force field; they still have a great defensive power."

Convinced, Twilight took a deep breath and relaxed herself; she was working herself over nothing. She would be willing to ask how in Equestria they were supposed to infiltrate through their entire army to get close to White. And although Spike told her Celestia would say how and when, Twilight already knew they were going to lift the force field to distract the dragons with a short battle, even if risking themselves in it.

"Say Rarity, do you have the elements with you?" Asked Twilight.

"Why, yes Twilight." Replied the white pony levitating the suitcase closer to Twilight "I have them right here."

So what was supposed to happen now? The strategy was pretty straight forward; they'd face White and harmonize his corrupted heart. Yes, it was way too much of a basic plan for Twilight's comfort; a little more detail on how they were supposed to get even close to him or how they were going to use the elements without White blasted enormous balls of magical fire at them, it certainly wouldn't be like the time they faced Discord, where he was overly confident and that led him to his doom. By all the things White had done during the entire month, they could tell that unlike Discord he would show absolutely no mercy.

A dark blue flash snapped Twilight out of her concerns, for Princess Luna had made her appearance teleporting herself in the desired place. Twilight was deeply grateful to be in her presence once again, though at first glance could Twilight notice that Luna hadn't had the pleasurable trip Rarity described. Even though not deep, Princess Luna was covered in scratches, whether from dragons or not she was unsure, and her mane was far from as clean as it usually was, for even big branches were stuck on it. Even mud splashed all over her! Seriously, what had happened to her?

"We are truly sorry for our lateness, but we got carried away a little by our past" She apologized in her exquisite tone of voice, fortunately not her Royal one. What exactly did she mean, no one knew.

"Your highness!" bowed everypony but Rarity, Garble and Spike. Obviously they had met before.

"Please my little ponies, no need for such formalities" Luna explained "Spike, has my sister given you the order yet?"

"I'm afraid she didn't." he replied shaking his head sideways "How has been liberation? You seem awfully dirty from that."

"It's not exactly wounds from dragons, but I assure you that every dragon has fled with their tail between their legs."

What could Luna's scratches be from? Spike never had the chance to ask, for the moment he wanted to, a familiar pain in his stomach appeared. His words interrupted by his sudden need to burp, all his friends eyes staring at him once again, expecting him to bring the news that'd notify what was going on in Canterlot. It definitely felt like Luna's appearance was of no importance, and all they wanted to do was to read Celestia's letter. From the green flame that Spike burped formed a so familiar scroll with the Royal stamp. Immediately after it appearing, Spike grabbed it and read it for himself before aloud.

It wouldn't have made any difference if he had decided to read it aloud in the first place; his expression showing such fear and confusion seemed to be enough for them to spread alongside the general idea of what could possibly be happening. After finishing a first glance, a loud gasp could be heard just before a 'oh no' and if somepony hadn't guessed from his expression that they were bad news it was now that they'd know.

"What is it Spike?" Twilight asked, afraid of knowing the answer. Spike read it aloud.

"_My Faithful Student,_

_It is common knowledge that your loyalty was not exactly pure, Spike. As well as I now know what your plan was, I know you managed to slip the five Elements of Harmony right past me. So I'd like you to give it a try if you're dragon enough; that is, if you can get through my full pledged army. As I assumed, Celestia was clearly no match for my renewed power, but I shall give Celestia one last chance to see her subjects die for her before I achieve my ultimate vengeance. And once I see you burn within the flames of my dragons, I shall do the same to all of Equestria._

_Your soon to be your doom,_

_King White."_

"Why do you all look so terrified?" Asked Luna reading the piece of parchment. "I honestly don't see what the problem is; we still have the elements of harmony to defeat him."

"He's telling us he has already taken over Canterlot!" Spike explained, not so well.

"That means he must have already defeated my brother and the entire Royal Guard!" Twilight added.

"And now we need to get through his whole army?" Rainbow panicked a little. Fluttershy on the other hoof, surprisingly hadn't had a heart attack yet.

"They have an army?" Luna asked, raising her eyebrow and grinning a little, trying to hide something. Luna awaited for Twilight to nod at her before she made a loud whistle, what for? Once again who knew? "Twilight please… we have an Ursa!"

To their surprise, a sudden shaking could be felt, but it stopped quickly, and then continued, and stopped. It followed a certain rhythm, like it was footsteps; giant footsteps followed by a loud roar very different from a dragon's one. What's more, another shaking could be felt as the roof of the building was torn apart. What could be seen looking at them from above, nothing less than the dreaded Ursa Mayor! There was a loud girly squeal, coming from no other than Garble, who was scared to his bones. Every other pony, including Spike, where completely frozen from fear, surprise, and amazement.

"I-is this g-good news?" Twilight hesitated to ask. Luna didn't answer verbally, but flew to match the Ursa's mouth's height, to receive a friendly lick soaking all her face in galactic saliva.

"I have raised Big Blue ever since it was just a little Ursa Minor" Luna explained, though Big Blue was no longer blue, but a dark purple. 'Little?' everypony thought; they had encountered an Ursa Minor and they knew for sure that it was anything but little. "And now I find out she had a baby" Luna smiled "I'm so very happy for her"

"So those wounds…" Twilight asked "they are from her?"

"Why, yes. After one thousand years of my absence she found herself a new life, and almost forgot about me. So when I invaded her territory, well you can imagine how she received me" Luna said. Wasn't Princess Luna just awesome? She was the Princess of the night, guardian of the dreams, and tamer of the stars. With this recent addition to the ponies' small party, the plan was surely to be easier to develop. But it wasn't all; what's a mother without her son? Another couple of rhythmical shakings could be felt as a smaller version of the Ursa mayor, this time blue, and particularly familiar to Twilight. In fact, this one seemed to stare at Twilight, in a very… friendly way; why would that be?

"Huzzah!" Luna exclaimed "The Ursa has been doubled!"

* * *

Yeah... so, i'm really sorry for being so late, as usual, but i hope it was at least worth a little. For all of you who guessed the plot from even chapter one, i don't congratulate you, i did a terrible job keeping the suspense.

Also, i don't think i have especified it before so...  
My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro.  
King White and Black kind of belongs to Nintendo.  
"They have an army, we have an Ursa" is from Avengers... in a way.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't worry about waiting for next one! (you know, world ends in like two days)

See ya/ read ya  
Freeda91


	8. The White Dragon

**The White Dragon**

"Okay everypony, please listen to me!" Yelled Twilight Sparkle to the once again free citizens of Ponyville. It was a glorious morning, fortunately the sun was shining and the smoke clouds seemed to have vanished. Not a single dragon, apart from Spike and Garble, could be spotted in or nearby the town. A day so perfect hadn't been in weeks! Half of the townsfolk were too busy looking with amazement at the duo of Ursas that were resting in the little open space they found, with Luna being close to them just in case. The other half was simply happy to finally stop fearing for their lives, even if for a short time, before the dragons came back. It certainly felt even better to see the sun shine; they weren't even sure if it was the sun shining so intensively or that they had gotten used to the depressing smoke covered sky.

"Thanks to a collaborated effort from Spike, the princess, and us, we managed to survive this sudden invasion that struck us for several weeks. And now, the dragons have left." Cheers could be heard all over the place, it was certainly the best thing the ponies could have heard, despite the bad news that followed. "However…" She began, silence taking over the place "We have been informed, that Canterlot, and Princess Celestia, are suffering their full army attacking. Should we not help them, Canterlot might fall, and so our land of Equestria"

"Ptss… Twilight" Rainbow Dash whispered to her so her words wouldn't be overheard by the megaphone. "Remember we still need to leave some sort of defense plan here, just in case they come back"

"You're right" she then turned to the citizens "Although we'd like to take all our forces to confront the dragons, our small home of Ponyville requires some protection as well, so please pay very special attention to princess Luna, who'll be giving you some instruction on civil defense".

Having said so, Princess Luna stepped forward. Twilight offered her the megaphone, but the Princess politely refused her offer. Instead, she appealed to her famous royal Canterlot voice. "Citizens of ponyville" half the ponies needed to cover their ears from the loud voice the princess possessed. "We require you to form different teams: Pegasi, Earth Ponies, and Unicorns. Those who have had any battle experience please step forward; otherwise, please follow my orders."

Almost as fast as Rainbow Dash could be, the ponies quickly separated into the three said groups. Of course the younger fillies were out of the question, they may help in some other way. As expected, the majority of the ponies were earth ponies, but there was also a good number of pegasi; unicorns on the other hand, were scarce in the town, and the few that resided there didn't have such a useful use of magic like Twilight did. There was also no time to teach anything, after all it was supposed to be a provisional defense, their aim was to protect themselves and buy some time.

"I highly recommend the pegasi to use their weather controlling powers to create a storm, the bigger the better. A strong rain will diminish their flames and help stop fires, and thunder might be helpful against their flying soldiers, forcing them to land and be within range for everypony. Earth ponies…" she began; materializing with her magic dozens, if not more, pairs of bows and arrows, both carrying a moon as an emblem on them, before her. "It is absurd to confront a dragon face to face, so take a bow and remember to always keep your distance from the enemy, also be prepared with pools of water placed through the town as much often as you can, in case some of you catch fire. Practice is not needed in this case; this magical bows and arrows are enchanted, to always hit the desired target, if within range. The arrows will also paralyze the target, though it may need a good amount of hits on bigger dragons. Unicorns, if talented in magic, I'd recommend you provide with healing spells; if not, just do the same as the earth ponies."

"What about us the fillies?" asked Scootaloo, standing alongside her crusaders friends.

Luna was silent for what seemed a minute, standing in the same place and thinking maybe? Then she answered "The younger fillies will carry on the most important task of all…" she said, pausing for a couple of seconds, then in a much calmer voice she concluded "…Live. If everything fails, remember that you are the future."

Where did all this deepness come from? Was Princess Luna so afraid she felt forced to say that? Were the odds of total destruction really that high? Of course all this thoughts were avoided by the civil, who were convinced that they'd survive; but what if not? Then it'd be really the fillies job, to survive any means possible, to keep the species living, and maybe giving the ponies another chance to recover their land. On the other hoof, they didn't really know what king White was planning after conquering Canterlot. If he really was planning to burn the entire land then they didn't really have any other hopes than defeating him now.

After her speech, the princess moved away from the crowd, to meet with the element holders, and others. Her expression wasn't a happy one, in fact it could be seen how concerned she was both for her sister and Ponyville itself. It was a tough choice, but only one place could be saved; and Princess Celestia was a priority, in this case.

"Everypony, you have five minutes before we leave, should you greet anypony do it now. I highly recommend you do anything you don't want to regret not doing." Her voice didn't sound as calm as when she talked to the fillies, this time it was the exact opposite; it clearly felt like a direct order, if not in the Royal Canterlot tone.

Taking in account how serious the princess was, both Applejack and Rarity didn't hesitate and hurried to greet their families, and Pinkie Pie greeted every friend she had (yes, having only five minutes she galloped even faster than Dashie). Rainbow Dash as well, decided she'd at least give her fans a last moment. Fluttershy and Twilight however, didn't leave the princess' side. The shy pegasus just couldn't afford saying goodbye to her friends, so she decided she'd simple skip that awful part. Twilight for one, noticed how the princess glared at her with such petrifying eyes, she knew that if she were to go, the princess would stop her. She was right.

"Twilight Sparkle" the princess began "You certainly showed some leadership skills when calming down everypony, and some powerful magic abilities from what Spike has told me." Twilight blushed slightly "and as a reward for your performance, I'd like to give you the opportunity to try your hoof at something not even Celestia could ever do"

"And that is?" Twilight asked, eyes shining from excitement.

"Taming an Ursa Minor." That excitement the young unicorn felt soon turned into terror, as she looked up to see Luna's Ursa Mayor, whose face was so high up she could barely see it.

"Excuse me princess, but isn't that impossible?" she tried to sound calm.

"It clearly isn't. What would be impossible would be taming one once it has grown. Besides, I already heard some rumors about you calming this very Ursa Minor down." Luna was really proud of the lavender unicorn, already in her age and she possessed such powerful magic, no wonder she represented that element. But magic itself didn't have much to do with taming wild animals, especially this one. But maybe, just maybe, she might do it.

"I'll give it a try" Twilight hesitated to reply, but then asked "How exactly do I do it?"

"Well, first you need to befriend it and earn his trust. I can tell it kind of trusts you a little, but you still need to show it who's boss. All you need to do is show no fear, prove yourself to be kind and a great leader. If the Ursa recognizes these attributes in you, it'll most likely obey you."

"Most likely? What happens if not?" asked the unicorn.

"oh, it differs. It may stomp you, eat you, etcetera." Replied Luna, giving Twilight an indifferent look. Once she spotted the horror in her face, Luna chuckled and comforted her student. "Just having some fun with you; how's it said? Pulling your… hair. But in serious, a wild Ursa Mayor might do such things if not tamed from a child. I mean, it's like thirty times bigger, and one hundred times as dangerous."

"Ok, I'll give it a try" Twilight said to herself in shyly voice almost as high as Fluttershy's.

The lavender pony proceeded to face the Ursa Minor, which seemed to irradiate fear in the young pony's mind, as it would do on anyone; but Twilight had a good feeling about all this, she did see the Ursa smile at her before after all, and it was definitely a good sign. But now the moment of truth had come, and her self-confidence had vanished. She had her horn ready to teleport out of danger just in case, she'd have another chance again, or better if not. With no place to hide, her eyes met with the Ursa's. Both seemed utterly determined in staring each other to death, but eventually, Twilight performed a bow, parting her eyes from the Ursa's. Unexpectedly, the Ursa answered to the reverence; Twilight could not believe her very own eyes, the fearful Ursa Minor seemed to respect her as a friend!

'This is amazing!' She thought 'Maybe I can communicate with it with a telepathy spell' She tried said spell, asking it to lie down. In fact, a couple of magic waves could be seen coming from Twilight's horn and into the Ursa's ear. What was odd was that pretty much like when she used a wind spell to perform a lullaby to calm it down, the Ursa had a sleepy and pleasure full face; nothing Twilight asked it to do.

"I don't get it!" Twilight yelled in frustration with herself, it wasn't common that she failed with such an easy spell, what misunderstanding could there have been in her message? Then she found out the problem had nothing to do with her at all, in fact it had to do with somepony else. Both Luna and Twilight stared in amazement as the kind and shy Fluttershy calmly rubbed the now lying on its back Ursa Minor without any sign of fear.

"Wow, Fluttershy…" Twilight began "I knew you were good with animals, but not that much!" The pegasus stopped petting the bear. "You could have showed up when it crashed into Ponyville!"

"Well, It must have been the time I was calming the devastated mother who couldn't find her child" Fluttershy answered, referencing both Ursas. "And how can you fear this cute little shiny bear?" She said in a ridiculously lovely voice as she tickled the giant creature on its belly.

"Why don't you try that telepathy spell again, and see whether it has decided to befriend you?" asked Luna to her student.

Twilight did just as she was told to, and for her surprise, there was actually an answer, she could hear a loud, yet feminine voice coming from the Ursa's way; was this the Ursa's inner voice? Anyway, she could also understand it as if it was speaking to the perfection. Her telepathy spell had worked this time! Not only that, but the answer was intriguing as well.

'I shall do as you say, my friend; but remember I'm just doing this because of the current situation. You have yet to impress me in order for me to accept you as a true master' that was the Ursa's voice in Twilight's mind, the feeling of having a different voice inside one's head was just too confusing, having two minds instead of one; If she didn't keep her spell under control she mind lose it and end up with mind sickness.

'Thank you, my friend' replied Twilight with another reverence 'By the way, I don't enjoy referring to you as your species, would you mind telling me what your name is?' she tried to sound as formal as possible, she clearly wanted to be as elegant and smart as possible in front of her new friend to earn her respect.

'My name is Ursula' Replied the gigantic bear 'I've heard you're Twilight Sparkle. I am terribly sorry for what happened that awful night, and thank you for reuniting me with my dear mother'

"Ugh… my head" Twilight groaned as she suffered a painful migraine, obviously from that spell she had been using. "I'd better take it easy with that spell, or I might not need it to read everypony's mind.

"Look on the brighter side, my little pony, you seem to have succeeded in gaining the Ursa Minor's trust" Luna exclaimed.

"Ursula" Twilight interrupted "Her name is Ursula"

"My apologies dear Ursula" Luna told the bear.

Five minutes were certainly too little time for the ponies to say farewell to her friends, Pinkie had the worst time ever. One cannot simply imagine Pinkie Pie saying goodbye; maybe a see you later, but never a farewell. It wasn't easy for the others either, Applejack shed gallons of tears just from the thought of having to leave her family, same with Rarity, only a little more dramatically. By the way Luna talked, it sounded like a suicide mission. Not a very good sign, but on the other hoof, it was better they did this, before the dragons could attack their families again. After short heartbreaking moments, the four ponies returned to where the others were, expecting their arrival for they could leave in the act.

"Princess" Pinkie Pie called her "Why do we need to leave so soon? I didn't get to greet half my friends!"

"A fair question, young one." Replied the princess "shall we leave this instant, we should be arriving Canterlot by dusk. Thus both my power and the Ursas' would be stronger. It's just simple logic."

"Aren't you the one who controls the Moon? Can't you control when it's going to rise?" Asked Rainbow Dash.

"But I do not control the time the sun sets." She quickly said "besides, I honestly do not want the night to stay more than the naturally necessary, for it was what first taunted me to do what I will always regret." Luna kept some unsettling silence, everyone knew what she meant; she had depressed herself somehow. Putting all her past behind her, Luna stood up once again and gave the order to leave.

* * *

Luna would obviously be riding the Ursa Major, and alongside her were Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity; all of them not believing they were actually riding it. On the Ursa Minor was as you might guess by now, Twilight Sparkle as lead, Fluttershy and Spike by her side. Garble was still a bit afraid from the bears, and honestly didn't like them that much to sit on their backs, so he decided to fly all the way. His excuse however, was that he was way too proud to be riding another creature that was 'inferior' to him.

Silence was essential for their inadvertent trip to Canterlot. Dragons could be spying on them on that very instant, waiting for the instant to attack, or maybe big dragons were lurking the skies, and they definitely didn't want to bring their attention. It already didn't help that the Ursas were notorious, but speaking would only worsen it. It was rather tedious though, such a boring trip even Pinkie Pie had fallen asleep. Rarity joined her as well, for beauty purposes.

'I know we need to cover ourselves in a silence coat, but isn't there any other way?' asked Twilight to the princess telepathically 'I mean, even Pinkie Pie is asleep. Aren't you bored?'

"Hey Garble" Spike called the dragon "would you mind giving us an aerial view from over the smoke clouds?" He asked "that way we can at least talk until you tell us not to"

"Why do I have to do it? There are many pegasus here" complained the cranky dragon.

"what do you think will happen if any dragon sees a pony?" he quickly said, in a stating the obvious tone "you're the only who wouldn't blow our cover"

"Fine…" Garble gave up and flew up above the smoke. He would descend a little once in a while, so he didn't split from the others.

"Hey Spike" Twilight asked "The letter we got from White says that he already knew your plan. Any idea how he figured it out?"

"Maybe we didn't fool him with the fake skull" Spike shrugged "it was a regular wolf skull that I shaped into a unicorn one. It's possible he noticed it."

"It looked real to me!" She complimented her brother's crafting abilities "And I don't think that was it; he'd have included in the letter something about Garble as well then. Also, you took all of us down after that, I bet any doubt he had you'd have re-earned his trust when doing so."

"Maybe" Spike hesitated to say "Maybe he wasn't lying when he said he had already beaten Celestia. Maybe she told him, or maybe he saw any of the letters I sent her"

"You know" Twilight began "for being such a terrible and fearful dictator, he did a good job teaching you about magic. In just a month you were almost as good as me!"

"It wasn't his doing, Twi" Twilight didn't really know if he was being modest or just returning the compliment, or simply being honest "I learned that quickly because I used to help you so much. I actually learned from that!" He exclaimed, happy to finally get it out of his mouth. He was really grateful to Twilight for being her family, for being who she was and for teaching Spike everything about life. It was clear for Twilight how hard it was for him when the time came that they had to fight.

"And what exactly have you learned? Anything I don't know?" Twilight asked, intrigued.

"Is there anything you don't know?" Spike replied joking. Twilight chuckled. "I know some basic and intermediate, but not that many tricks. Levitation, magic blasts, force fields, metamorphosis… that's it"

"Metamorphosis is quite an advanced spell, Spike!" Luna interrupted.

"Not if I use it to turn into simple things, like a boulder."

The little dragon had quite matured in that month, not only mentally and in abilities, but in his body as well. Twilight didn't notice it at first, but Spike was her same height now; not a considerable and dangerously fast growth to be worried about, considering his last experience in growing up big time, but a more natural growth. Twilight was so proud and happy to be reunited with him again, not only because he now possessed magical abilities that made him unique, but because she… they all missed his presence; they missed him, she missed him. It was necessary for the young unicorn to bring the dragon to an embrace and let a tear of joy escape her eyelids. The dragon of course responded to the hug, smiling like he hadn't in so much time.

A tear, cold in comparison to his warm heart, could be seen in his eye, something he actually enjoyed feeling. Such sweet moment could turn any hatred into pure love just by watching it, even Discord, the god of Chaos, wouldn't be able to prevent such tear to be shown and his pride to rain from his face. The dragon actually felt like this, ashamed of himself from showing such weakness, but at the same time it was a new and unforgettable experience. He could feel his inner fire burn hotter than any time before. Yes, Garble's soft side had been revealed. And he enjoyed these new feelings, so very different from the hatred towards other creatures he used to have. Even his fellow dragons would never express such affection, making this the only time he realized what had been missed because of his brutish behavior.

"Young dragon, is that a tear of joy I can see?" teased Princess Luna.

"What!?" he shouted, rubbing the tear off with both arms as fast as possible and on its place forming a very pronounced frown. "Where would you even get such idea?"

"It is not a shame that you show your feelings. Most dragons do not, and in turn they do not enjoy to feel this warmth." Princess Luna's words were from experience, Spike could tell, knowing she too, had a dragon of her own as well as experience with wild ones. Garble was too stubborn to give up to his pride though, so he fled from facing his feelings by flying overclouds to fulfill his duty.

"Princess…" Spike felt this was the only time he could get honest answers "I'd like to know about the relationship between your dragon and you, and Celestia and hers." It wasn't only Spike that was curious about this, everypony there immediately stared at the princess and lifted their ears to pay full attention.

"Why of course, Spike" responded Luna. "But given the fact that we don't have enough time to tell the full story, I'll just jump to their childhood" Luna also knew Spike had read the full book, so he must had a good idea of what exactly had happened, but details such as relations between brothers weren't as well explained in the book as actual facts of things that happened, especially the last couple of fights between them, were Discord was included.

"You must already know about White, huh? The extremely proud of being a dragon and always firm to his beliefs, who would never accept a no for an answer" Luna asked. In fact, that was the King White Spike had to deal with for a month. "But he wasn't always like that" Luna explained "In fact, his true name, the one my sister granted him, was rather different and unbelievably unthinkable. I hardly think you could ever guess it if you had to." Luna seemed to be chuckling a bit before finally saying his name "His name was… Snowy." Luna couldn't help it, and burst out laughing, leaving everypony a little bit confused by her sudden action. But after a few seconds, Pinkie, Spike and Garble followed to laugh as well.

"Snowy!" Spike laughed heavily "Oh, oh, oh, did he spit ice?" he continued to laugh.

"Or maybe ice cream!" Pinkie added, while breathing and laughing at the same time, kind of a weird noise was produced when doing so.

"T-That's the lamest name for a dragon! Hahaha" cried Garble.

"I know, right?" Luna asked, a tiny bit calmed down "My sister was never good with names" she laughed a bit more before finally calming down completely. "Anyhoof, he used to stand tight, and never to retreat his words, or let anyone question his beliefs. But he did like the natural way of every creature being unique the way they were. In fact, the dragon treaty was originally his idea, to separate dragons from ponies, so that peace could be eternal, and that everyone could live their natural way. Dragons within each other for thousands of years per life; and ponies within ponies for around eighty years.

"Appart from Discord bringin chaos between dragons and ponies, how did the two species get along with each other?" Spike asked.

"Very well indeed." Luna replied with a smile "except for a couple of small conflicts such as dragons snoring smoke, peace was ruling the lands. In fact, some dragons and ponies used to work together".

"But after the conflict between the two brothers…" Twilight guessed "the dragons decided to live separately from ponies, like King White wanted to." Twilight still couldn't understand why exactly White wanted to separate the species if they did get along so well. But it seemed like a question not even Luna could answer.

"King Black" Luna continued "my dragon, was black scaled and had dark blue eyes, spikes, and claws. But his scales also had a unique feature: they'd shine, as stars in the galaxy; thus I named him Nebula." she stated "he was like any other younger sibling. He loved his brother even more than he loved my sister or me, and he always wanted to exceed at everything his brother did, thought always failed miserably. A feeling I shared with him as well. He was energetic and never gave up, even though he never seemed to make such good decisions and required of his brother to correct his mistakes. But his heart was always in the right place, and in the end his heart was both with the dragons and the ponies. He embraced the idea of a life together; after all, what could be stronger that such alliance?"

"So then Discord got between them and the conflict arose, right?" Rainbow Dash asked, sure to finally understand.

Luna hesitated for a second before replying "not exactly. The conflict came before Discord, at least between the dragons and their subordinates." Luna explained "There was peace, but a couple of conflicts and threats between the two species. And so, the two ideas surged: A life together in harmony and friendship trying to get through the hardships as good friends, or separation of territory for eternal peace. The Dragons split into either Black or White followers, and what I think brought the attention from discord, was that these two groups had a severe fight."

"Then Discord acted and made the brothers fight each other, giving the problem a trivial solution; winner decides. Though Nebula refused to fight and well, he…" Twilight assumed and hesitated to answer knowing saying such words might hurt the princess. Princess Luna gave her a warm smile and nodded proud of the young unicorn's intelligence.

"Well my fellow companions, as much as I'd like to go on with this story, it is time for me to perform my duties." Luna said "Rainbow Dash, how fast can you clear the smoke?"

"Ten. Seconds. Flat." Rainbow replied firmly.

"Then go. It is time for the moon to shine upon Equestria for another night."

The cyan pegasus did as told and took off already in a dash and immediately became a blurry multicolored stripe in the sky. Busting cloud by cloud, the weather patrol got rid of the smoke and allowed the last of the sunlight in, in what she had promised: ten seconds flat. The wind suddenly blew cold. After so much time covered by smoke and fire, the slightest cold wind could make the ponies shiver intensely, like autumn's wind after summer. On the other hoof, it refreshed them to a point they enjoyed the shiver, and embraced it for it could possibly be the last time they felt cold in a while. They were fighting dragons after all! Amazed, Princess Luna thanked the pegasus, and proceeded to focus on the task at hand with much proud.

The mystical mare's horn began to glow slightly in a dark blue light, as well as her eyes. Looking at the night sky, it could be seen how one by one the tiny dots known as stars appeared in the firmament. It was the first time Twilight experienced a Lunar rising, so she was as excited as the first time she saw Celestia raise the Sun. Once the stars were ready, the moon was to come. Luna's horn this time glowed intensively, and taking impulse to raise the giant star, She lifted herself in the air with the help of her wings and from the mountains in the horizon the moon began to raise and raise until it was atop of them.

Out of air, Princess Luna landed in the Ursa Mayor once again and gasped moderately. The others meanwhile, looked in amazement at the beautiful sight that was the sky. The stars, the thousands of sparkling lights that illuminated the darkness above; and the moon, shiny like diamonds and allowing its full self to be contemplated. It was just a breathtaking marvel. No wonder Nightmare Moon wanted the night to last forever, who would want to let pass of this?

"I don't mean to be a party pooper" Garble interrupted Luna "but won't we be seen now?"

"Now that the moon is above us, the Ursas will have no problem dealing with any dragon. If they see us, they are prone to flee like rats" Luna answered, confident about the giant bears. "Besides, we're already at the entrance; there's no point in hiding anymore."

The princess couldn't be more correct; in less than a minute, they could already see a large fireball coming their way. Luckily enough, the princess power was certainly stronger now, to simply reduce it into the nothingness without breaking a sweat. Though far from the castle, they had already reached the city, and apart from the fireball they had just received as a welcome, it was notorious how the dragons had taken control of the place: Everywhere one looked it couldn't be avoided to spot at least one or two large dragons flying by, terrorizing the entire population. Houses were burning in a raging and unstoppable fire so hot, the cold wind they had felt just before reaching the city was easily forgotten and replaced with drops of sweat covering the ponies' bodies, protecting them from the dreadful heat. Not even on Celestia's warmer summer days could one fell such heat! Was it not for Rainbow Dash clearing the skies a couple of seconds ago, and princess Luna summoning a powerful wind to help clear the smoke, the full sky would be nothing but blackness and sickness; however, it now was a beautiful full-moon night. The stars unfortunately were covered by the light of the fire, but their presence could be felt by the single fact that the sky was clear of smoke after so much time under tits despairing fog of fear.

"We must head to the castle!" Luna yelled in her famous royal voice "I bet White is where my sister."

"But what about the ponies here?" Asked Rainbow Dash.

"I shall take care of the situation here with the help of Big Blue; you all go on without me and use the elements of harmony on White; that should stop all this madness!" Explained Luna.

With nothing else than a simple nod, their subjects obeyed and with the help of Garble, Applejack and Pinkie Pie jumped from Big Blue's back into Ursula's. Rainbow Dash denied to sit on this one, and if she could do anything to help the ponies in need she would try her best, so by flying close to her friends she could at least do a quick rescue with her blinding speed and save at least a life. She also wanted to stay a little away from Twilight's reach, since she wouldn't approve her reckless, yet well intended behavior.

"Hey, Spike" Garble called the dragon "remember that group of dragons that were against White?" he asked; Spike nodded in response "Well most of them are here. I'm gonna gather all together and then meet you in the castle"

"Excellent idea" Spike commented "But I'd prefer you helped princess Luna for a while" Garble didn't answer, he just flew away in search of their friends. How many would he gather? Ten? Twenty? It didn't really matter to Spike, just knowing that there were dragons willing to help their cause were some incredibly awesome news. And he knew princess Luna was going to need all the help she could get; obviously Twilight was going to send Ursula to help her once they got to the castle safely, but they would also need some help against White; he was sure to be mightier than any ordinary dragon.

It was extraordinary easily to get around the city on the Ursa; not only she was faster than all of them (but Rainbow Dash), but since most dragons were afraid of her, and the ones that weren't, were busy with the mother who was causing a lot more havoc. On the other hoof, it was a big target, so though less, a lot of attacks were aimed at them.

"Spike, can you give me a hand?" Twilight asked. She was sure he had the same idea as her, and indeed he nodded and followed his intuition. Together, they used their combined magic, to provide the Ursa Minor, with a mobile magic force field. It wasn't of highest quality, but it was strong enough to deflect enemy's fire attacks and thus allowing Ursula to move forward and not to lose time evading. Twilight's purple shield protected the front and the back of Ursula, while Spike's green shield protected the sides. Everypony watched in awe as the hundreds of flames headed their way had absolutely no effect on them for as long as their two friends could keep up with that massive and exhaustive combined spell. It was clear though, that Spike was still far below Twilight's abilities, his power was about half as hers, and it could be seen by the size and color opacity. But for his friends sake, for everpony's sake… for Rarity's sake, he'd make his best and keep up or even surpass Twilight if he needed to!

Luckily for the exhausted magicians, the castle was within inches now. They now only needed to walk right in while Ursula distracted the dragons outside. She was going to be okay, it wasn't a helpless creature; in fact, Luna had mentioned something about the full moon giving it powers; what exactly did she mean? The Giant bear, probably reading Twilight's mind, leaped her head close to the ground, so the passengers could safely get off. They all did as they intuition told them to and as soon as they landed on the ground they ran for it towards the castle doors. Rainbow Dash got there first, obviously, and as she looked back she could see the raging Ursa Minor calling the attention with a big thunderous roar that was far louder than any dragon she had heard. Soon, the Ursa ran away from there, followed by dragons; she was probably going to get the dragons away from them, and closer to her mother, who most likely treated them like practice dummies.

As soon as the seven entered the castle, Twilight quickly closed the door with her magic. She turned around just to be… surprised. She could see the very same expression on her friends as well. The place was absurdly… quiet. To be honest, she was expecting dozens of guards to be standing near wherever White was to be, not this. It didn't surprise her though that the Canterlot Royal guards were absent from the castle. After all, they did need to protect the civilians. And her brother must most likely be commanding all the operation.

"I think we're in the wrong place" Pinkie said "I don't remember this place being so boring" she made emphasis on boring.

"Come on, let's hurry to the throne room" Twilight said "I'm sure we'll find someone there. And I hope the princess is still okay"

A couple of silent stairs, doors and corridors later they reached the throne. From the distance Twilight could see the horror of what she feared though they had already been warned about. Princess Celestia lying on the floor, defeated. Her horn grey most likely from overuse; her wings and coat covered in ashes and bruises. And on her throne, sat White; expecting their arrival for quite a long time. The mighty dragon focused his eyes on one little target.

"Spike…" he said.

"White…" Spike replied.

"pfff, Snowy! Hahaha" Pinkie laughed.

* * *

I'm terribly sorry for such a loooooooooooooooong delay. What can i say, i blocked myself up. luckily i have things figured out now so i would be finishing this up soon.

See ya/read ya

Freeda91


	9. His Favorite Jewel

**His Favorite Jewel**

It was surreal, how astonishing it was, that despite the chaos taking place in the streets of Canterlot, including two Ursas roaring to the four winds in an instinctive way to intimidate their foes, and the very same dragons responding to those loud sounds by breathing fire, powerful enough to burn an entire forest into ashes, that the interior of the Castle was completely soundproof. No sound could be heard from the Ursas or dragons. Some may have worried about the Ursas' safety against all the fire; but the bears were almost as fireproof as the dragons themselves. They were special bears; they were made of stardust.

On the inside however, despite the fact that the trembling from the battle outside and screams could be actually heard, the true reason for its muting, was the tension in the very same room. All the mares and Spike couldn't stop gazing in great fear the defeated princess on the floor. It was just too dangerous to rush to her side, but despite that, it was Twilight, the most precautious one who made such a reckless move. Spike was about to pull her back, but White didn't do anything to her anyway. He didn't seem to bother about her sudden approach, but seemed to be focused on the small dragon, who he now must hate for making a fool of him.

"Princess! Princess! Wake up!" screamed Twilight as she shook the princess fiercely. No response could be heard from her. Worried about the worst, she placed her ear on her side, and her heart avoided an attack as she could hear the weak yet continuous beats from her teacher.

"What have you done to her!" Rampaged Twilight, her worries and concerns now transformed into pure anger. The dragon didn't even notice her sudden change though, he was still focused on Spike. Not until Twilight hit him with a magic blast he barely felt that he turned to her.

"I wanted some answers" White said "And I got them, unfortunately for her, the hard way" Twilight gritted her teeth furiously and was about to launch another useless blast, when Spike stopped her and brought some sense to her slapping her in the face.

"Twilight, focus!" Spike shouted "Don't lose control again!"

"You're right" twilight came back "I'm sorry"

"Before Celestia passed out, I managed to get her to tell me all your schemes, Spike; and that there are actually six elements of harmony. That I did not know." He glared at Spike "I bet you were simply going to keep your identity secret until you had a chance, huh?" Whatever White was talking about they had no idea. "Isn't that right Spike, element of Generosity?"

Spike the element of generosity? That was one lucky misunderstanding for them, or at least for Spike; since now Rarity wouldn't be a target. The dragon shared a quick glance with the unicorn, like they had the same idea, and followed the game.

"I can't believe it" Spike said, trying to fake a surprise "I honestly thought I could keep on hiding until the very last moment; how did you even notice? Did Celestia also tell you?"

"No, she fainted before giving me names, but I assume it because of one reason. I heard of a certain sapphire flower you made as a gift. No dragon has ever been able to separate from a gemstone before, let alone a gift. Generosity is the exact opposite of dragon's greed. So it's not surprising that you turned out to be so special huh?"

'Spike!' Twilight called him with her telepathy spell 'he's all focused on you; distract him, so that we can use the elements on him!' The conversation ended as fast as it started, and without doubt, Spike ran towards White; stopped a couple of feet away, and stuck out his tongue. The white dragon was infuriated, but would not be provoked by such childish ways.

"What's up you lizard brain?" he taunted "Afraid a baby could beat you?" White would stare in hatred, but still wouldn't react in violence. "No wonder Celestia called you Snowy, you're as fierce as a snowman" This time he nailed it. The white dragon was now furious. He jumped from his throne and flew towards the small dragon, exhaling an amazing amount of clear, sky blue fire. Spike was fast enough to counter it with his own fire. Turned out eating coal really paid off, he out powered White's flames! While the fire collision continued, Spike began moving sideways, forming half a circumference making White do so as well, and thus allowing his friends to be behind him; prepared to do an unavoidable harmony beam.

The harmony spell was already charged; while Spike was distracting White the flashes of multicolored cutie marks from each necklace powered Twilight's crown. And now that White couldn't see the attack coming, they shot. The rainbow colored beam went straight towards White, not making any curve like it usually did. This time they required speed. However, despite Twilight's perfect accuracy, and the fact that their target was White's blind spot, the attack missed. Just on the last second before impacting the dragon, White disappeared in a white flash. The beam didn't stop there, and hit Spike instead.

"Spike!" Twilight screamed calling the dragon in concern. The beam created a multicolor flash that blinded everypony, making them unable to see him for a couple of seconds until the light faded a little. When it did, Spike was lying on the ground, though he didn't seem to be affected by the attack. Without a problem he stood up, and looked in confusion to see what had happened.

"What happened Twilight?" asked the stunned dragon "I feel… lighter"

"Of course, he's unaffected" White said mostly to himself, reappearing in the distance. He had had his suspicions, but was now aware that Spike had been just a distraction, and that the real element of generosity was the remaining pony, but Spike had some sort of connection to said element though "That just proves you're my true enemy, a dragon without greed"

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash grunted "It's us who you should be afraid of!"

"Please, you make me laugh" White replied, teleporting next to them. Before any of them could react in any way, they were already under the dragon's strong levitation spell, and thus unable to escape his grip. "I only see six fillies who think they're a big shot, but actually had the best luck in the world to survive me." He then split the ponies in two directions keeping his magic grip on them "It's those elements of harmony that trouble me, but you can't use them, if you're not together, can you?"

"Hey let them go!" Spike shouted, ready to launch a magic blast at the tyrant. The blast never shot. He tried focusing once again, but nothing would happen. Now they knew what the elements of harmony had done to him: blocking his magic.

Seeing her friends in a struggle, Twilight awoke a deep feeling of strength, a desire for protecting them. After all she was the only one that could match White in magic, though only in defense spells. But there was really no other choice. If she didn't do anything then they would lose. On the other hand, she had definitely no idea of how she was gonna do that.

'Twi-light' She could hear a voice on her mind. It was the Princess! She was conscious now, though seemingly weakened. 'perform a seal, on his left… flank.'

Twilight didn't need more than a second to figure out the solution. She only needed total concentration; hopefully she was always focused. To break free from White's grip, Twilight performed a barrier around her, and landed safely and free from the dragon. Next was approaching him while preparing the difficult spell Celestia suggested. She knew just the way. Swiftly like Rainbow Dash, she performed an illusionary copies spell, which started to move around crazily; confusing even her friends.

"So you still have the desire to face me?" White laughed "you are quite a fighter aren't you? But there is no hope for you if you use such predictable spells." Despite having his magic occupied on the other ponies, he still had his regular dragon skills. A thick smoke cloud quickly enveloped the area as soon as he exhaled the black gas. Twilight was now unable to see as she and her spell got lost in the thickness of the smoke. But White didn't stop there, showing absolutely no mercy, he then exhaled a fierce fire ball where Twilight was. The impact not only burned the area, but the sudden explosion destroyed any hope left.

"Twilight…" Applejack whispered. Weak from the dragon's tight grip.

White flapped his wings slightly, to produce the wind necessary to lift the smoke and reveal the remainings of the explosion. Everypony gasped in fear as they could see the lavender coated unicorn lying on the floor, covered in burns and ashes, completely unconscious; if not dead. White couldn't help but let an evil laugh escape his mouth. He was now unstoppable. The element of magic was out of his way.

"Twi-light" Spike cried, his cold tears falling through his scales which, though thick like metal, could feel the coldness of the water pouring from him.

"It's all over my little ponies!" White shouted "your last hope was those dumb elements; their leader no longer exists, and so shall you…" The dispiteous dragon smiled like the demon he was, and even giggled as he tried to asphyxiate the prisoner ponies with his magic grip. Their screams were like music to his ears, the young dragon's tears like fuel to his blood hunger. The world was now his big food plate, filled with destroyed hopes and nothing but destruction to be.

Finally, the ponies fell to the ground completely agitated and gasping for air to enter their lungs. Coughing uncontrollably they wondered how they were alive, but thanked for it anyway. White's look was also clueless as he had suddenly lost control of his magic grip. The reason was soon to be found. Touching his left flank, was the lavender glowing horn of the 'dead' unicorn. Focusing her hardest as she sealed White's magic away. After her horn stopped glowing and she could finally get a break, a lock appeared on the dragon's flank.

"You!" the dragon exclaimed while attempting a tail slam at the unicorn. Twilight evaded it, by teleporting next to Spike. But immediately fell to the ground due to fatigue, and breathed heavily.

"Are you okay?" asked the loyal dragon to her sister.

"B-barely" she managed to reply in her lack of oxygen.

"Bu-bu-but you were dead!" White yelled in anger, pointing at the fake Twilight lying on the ground, who immediately disappeared into thin air.

Having recovered a little from her barrage, she explained chuckling at first. "Looks like I fooled you with an illusion" The dragon growled "After you created your smoke cloud I took advantage of it and focused my magic on just one copy, then performed an invisibility spell and teleported behind you. While you launched you fire ball I finished charging my spell and thada! I sealed your magic."

'Good work, Twilight' she could hear the princess communicating with her inside her mind.

"wow Twilight" Spike exclaimed "I didn't know you could do those!"

"A couple of days ago I didn't even knew they existed" she laughed shyly.

"Well, that's actually pretty clever; especially for figuring out where my magic core was!" White congratulated Twilight "But I doubt your spell can last more than ten minutes, considering your youth. Besides, you're now tired, and I am still a fire breathing dragon!" The fiery beast now charged at Twilight, claws ready to assault with their diamond cutting sharpness. Twilight was defenseless now, she couldn't even stand up and now she had to evade such swift attack. The attack did not connect though, for a green magic barrier protected the tired mare.

"Great!" Spike yelled "my magic is back!"

"Well well well…" twilight exclaimed "looks like the tables have just been turned. You lost your magic, and your student is now over you!" the lavender unicorn couldn't be happier of their fortune. Hadn't Spike recovered his powers that precise moment, she would have fallen victim of the berserk dragon.

"I am sick of you, insignificant pest!" White shouted "I let you live because you reminded me of my brother, and like my brother you will fall!" The evil dragon said, inhaling very loudly as he was about to launch the biggest fire ball he could do. Spike was too focused on Twilight's shield to counter it, or even evade it. It could already be felt, the impetuous heat coming from his very mouth even before the exhalation. Such concentrated power, Spike was afraid it would hit not only him, but everypony else. But just as he was about to release his final flame, a rock, more or less the size of an apple, impacted on the white dragon's cheek; forcing him to turn around and deviate the attack. The deadly blast instead made contact on the balcony's window; destroying the entire balcony which fell down the deep and pronounced Canterlot cliff below it. Having lost its main structure, and being debilitated by the collapse of the ground, the wall above the entrance to it fell as well. All this allowed the moonlight to invade them, very well accompanied by a chilly cold wind that blew from the horizon into the castle's pretty big hole.

"No magic, huh" said the pony who kicked the stone right into the dragon's face "That's just how we do the things on mah farm!" Exclaimed Applejack, then she picked up another rock and back kicked it. The projectile this time failed its target, by a hair though.

"You fool can't hurt me with that" growled White, flying closer to the earth pony.

"Already did" replied Applejack, trapping the dragon in a lasso and pulling with force. The dragon sighed as if bored, and with no effort he broke free with the bare strength of his arms. "Horseshoes! My favorite robe!" Applejack complained. White opened his mouth to charge another fire ball, but before he could even begin, a snow ball entered through it cleanly. Where from was a mystery, since the atmosphere around them was hot enough almost for water to evaporate. The culprit didn't take too much time in appearing; Pinkie Pie burst into laughter as the snow made the dragon cough.

"Enjoy the snow, snowy?" She giggled, making emphasis on Snowy, and making sound a lot longer than it was. The furious dragon charged at her since she was fairly close, and launched a tail slap at her. The party maniac simply docked in enjoyment and the tailed swiftly passed above her head, touching her mane softly. Intending to grab her with both arms he lunged at her, but the optimist pony wooed as she bounced over the dragons head and landed on his back. White quickly got up while Pinkie Pie laughed. Then he tried an aerial attack. "Twichy tail…" Pinkie Whispered before moving away, though not before placing an anvil right where she was. The confused dragon inevitably crashed his head against it, leaving him stargazing.

"What is… Why would… how?" White stuttered; he didn't really know what to ask.

"I never leave home without my inflatable party anvil!" Pinkie smiled at the dragon.

"Infla… what?" He turned to the other ponies, who would simply shrug.

"Now it's my turn!" Rainbow Dash yelled and closed to the dizzy dragon. "Now you see me…" she said as she galloped towards him, then she began flying around him at her famous speed "Now you don't!" her movements were obviously tailed by a rainbow trail, which curved several times in a blurry speed. The rainbow trail then circled the confused dragon, faster every second. Soon, there was a rainbow colored tornado around White, forcing him to spin around crazily and uncontrollably. If he was dizzy before, you can imagine how he was now!

White, sick of the cyan pegasus, breathed some continuous fire. Since she was circling around him, she was ought to get burnt. Rainbow Dash's speed was such though, that when she crossed his fire breath it hardly did anything to her but distract her and force her to land back. He may have not hurt her, but he at least freed himself.

"no way!" Rainbow Dash complained "I got distracted. I'll just try again"

"Wait!" Twilight stopped her with her magic. She was back on her feet now, but for the looks of it she wouldn't be able to continue using her magic to the limit. "Can't you see his grin? Or his stance of excessive confidence?" She pointed out. "look at his flank" she said "the seal's gone…"

"But it's hardly been five minutes!" Rainbow protested "Wasn't it supposed to be about ten minutes long?"

"Having in mind he has an awfully great amount of magic power, the fact that I'm young as he said, and that I was focusing three spells at the same time. It just makes sense! If I had you to distract them instead of myself I could have blocked it for even fifteen minutes!" Twilight explained.

"You knew your limitations to the perfection I see" White congratulated Twilight "I must say, you're one of the most intelligent ponies I have ever meet. You even resemble Star Swirl the Bearded in a way."

"Silly Snowy" Pinkie Pie interrupted "Twilight doesn't have a beard… yet"

After that quick nonsense, White continued "It all comes clear to me, how Spike could learn so quickly" White turned at Spike once again, after focusing for so much time on the ponies who managed to mock him. And even if he wanted revenge, he was sure in the end they'd all end in the same place. But Spike, his own kind, he was a priority. In his new land, there was certainly no place for betrayers. But even if he wanted to kill him in one shot, he had his friends to help him; specially the magical Twilight. O but White had had the chance to see what Spike's weaknesses and limitations were. He set his eyes on the two pegasi, and came up with an ironic end for the dragon.

In a white flash, the evil tyrant disappeared and reappeared, exactly behind Rainbow Dash. In a quick movement he trapped her with his tail, wrapping her tightly. Next she teleported once again, this time near Fluttershy. The shy pegasus freaked out and let a loud shriek be heard, but cause of her fear, was unable to avoid being captured with the dragon's left hand.

"Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy!" Twilight yelled, concerned about what the dragon might be planning to do. She focused her magic once again despite her exhaustion. "Let them go!" She screamed.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" White calmed Twilight down when he tightened his wrap on Rainbow Dash, forcing the pegasus to yell in pain. "If you try anything, your friend will pay for it. I don't want to see you move a muscle" the dragon smiled as Twilight's horn's glow faded, and the pony's teeth gritted in anger. Then he looked at what had attracted his attention, the element of generosity. With his magic, he swiftly brought the beautiful unicorn to his control, levitating her near him. As expected, Spike had a sudden change from concern, to sheer anger. White noticed this, and smiled.

"You better let her go, you monster!" He cried at top of his lungs, almost charging at him. If it wasn't for the fact that he was smarter now, he would have definitely done so.

"The element of generosity" White monologized taking a look at Rarity's necklace. "The natural enemy of any wild dragon. The opposite of our way of acting, of our reasoning. In fact, as much as greed brings unhappiness to you, generosity is a sickness for a dragon. A dragon with no greed is prone to die young, due to not satisfying his hunger. However, not all greed is material, as you may think."

"What do you mean?" Rarity asked, conquering her fear.

"If a dragon is feed with material greed, he is sure to grow in size; nothing else. He is bound to be a mindless creature who'd be slave of his own hoard. Forced by its natural desire to protect it and treasure it, to guard it for the rest of his life in the most isolated caves in the world; separated even from his own kind." He explained. Spike could feel he was experiencing all the things that happened on his birthday again. "Then there's greed for power!" He exclaimed in a high voice "This greed allows a dragon as myself to grow in power, and mind, despite not growing as big as a material greedy dragon would."

"So you seek power, big deal. What's your point?" Rarity asked.

"There is absolutely, and I repeat, absolutely no dragon who doesn't have greed of any kind." White turned to Spike curious "So what exactly is your greed Spike?" He turned to Rarity "A sapphire flower… as a gift." He mentioned as both Rarity and Spike reacted to those words "Never before had a dragon given away a gem as a gift to someone else. Why? Why I wonder. Could it be, that you found a new way of greed?" White's smile changed this time, it actually seemed happy, unlike his regular evilly happy.

"Wha-what do you mean?" Spike questioned, noticing this last.

As fast as it had appeared, the smile soon turned into a frown once again. "Of course…" he whispered "your favorite jewel, is it pretty to you?" Spike didn't understand what he meant at all, his favorite jewel? He did like rubies a lot. "is it white? Does it have curved purple hair? Does it carry diamonds for a cutie mark?" Rarity was stunned, she wasn't really sure whether to turn to see Spike or keep paying full attention at White's monologue. Spike on the other hand, was suffering a sudden reflection. And a sudden comprehension that the dragon before him had taught him even more than magic, he now understood what meant being a dragon; a different kind of dragon.

"My favorite jewel" he replied "Does much more than that…" he could feel his heart's beats like it was a train at full speed. "It shines every single day and night, whether there is light or not to reflect; for it has its own light, which comes in a deep blue color, shinier than the brightest moon, and warmer than any summer day." Rarity, who was doubting where to look, couldn't help but stare at the young dragon's emerald eyes as her heart melt by such words.

"It's confirmed I see" White exclaimed "you have a great greed for this jewel. Without it I'd say you'd not be yourself anymore, you'd most likely focus your greed on either power, or jewels. Yes, I suppose you'll be picking jewels" White smiled evilly, way too much for Spike's comfort. He could see, in fear, how the cruel dragon turned around, staring at the moon that could be seen from the fallen wall. He let a damned laugh take control of him as he threw the white unicorn away into the cold of the night, down to the cliff of her sure death.

"Rarity!" everypony shouted; especially Spike. How were things going to end now? What was the solution? The two pegasi were trapped by the dragon and even if they tried their hardest to break free it'd be too late. Twilight hadn't fully recovered and Rarity was already out of her reach. Spike, deciding with his heart instead of following any reasoning from his brain, did the only thing that came to him. Even if it'd cost his life. Hardly a second after Rarity was tossed down the cliff; Spike was already making a run for her. Of course he couldn't catch her; not unless he… jumped.

The young dragon felt the adrenaline running through his body, and all his senses becoming sharper. Finally the moment of the leap came, and as he felt the forces of gravity pull him down, these senses increased. That moment, when he understood he was going to die, he questioned himself whether there was something he regretted. Only one thing came to mind; not greeting his friends off. The wind on his eye reduced that sharpness increase to lower it to normal, and though he had that rush of adrenaline, he felt as weak and useless as ever, as it wouldn't be getting him out of what he had just gotten into. Why he knew the moment he jumped, that Rarity would survive; of this he was sure. Only he didn't know whether he'd make it out as well.

'What have you done!' He could hear inside his mind. Time passed so slow for him now, that by the time he could reach Rarity he could have a full conversation with Twilight. It was impressive, how despite the distance between them, Twilight could still perform telepathy.

'Don't worry, Twi.' He paused a bit 'I'll teleport her back' that all he could say, or rather all he said, before the spell was completely out of reach.

"Her?" Twilight wondered the exact meaning of his words.

As stated before, time passed slowly for the dragon. However, that didn't mean his fall was actually slowed down; he was still falling under a normal speed. Only his mind was concentrated on something else, or rather someone else. Though he had heard many times that whenever one's time has come, one's whole life would pass through one's eyes. This wasn't the case here though. He wasn't ready to leave; not until Rarity was utterly safe.

Thanks to his recent growth, Spike had gotten a little more weight, and now was heavier than rarity; thus reached her in no time. She knew he'd be willing to jump for her, but she didn't actually expect he'd do it for real! Seeing his face right next to hers was just as much surprising as was for Twilight seeing him jump.

"Wha-what are you doing here?!" Rarity yelled in both anger and happiness.

"I thought I could make you some company" he replied "Do you remember that time… on my birthday?" Spike asked. He was too calmed for where they were.

"Tha-that time…?" Rarity whispered. Of course she remembered; how could she ever forget. It was the first time Spike had told her how he really felt about her.

"I never thought we'd be in the same situation again" Spike laughed shyly. Rarity smiled at his laugh. It definitely seemed to be the end, and he actually decided to be with her until the very end. Her heart melt, for one last time she'd think. For that might be the last time they could smile together.

"That time it was you who confessed." Rarity brought up something Spike reacted to immediately. "This time however, is only fair that I get to do so." Spike's eyes opened wide as they could, his ears rose to hear every single thing she could say to the very perfection, he only wanted to hear her voice; nothing else. No wind, no fire, no screams; nothing but her. He, also, was gathering the strength and courage to do something as well, but he needed a bit more time.

"Spike" Rarity began "I Iov…" she was cut out. Spike had done so. Just like the time before, only the roles had turned. His finger was covering her mouth. Seeing how she reacted he pulled it away from her face, which was inches away from his. A small tear escaped the young dragon's eye as he prepared for his end after hearing what his heart had desired for so long. Knowing it'd be the last thing he would ever do, he gently pressed his lips against hers, and enjoyed the last of his life. Rarity wasn't too shocked about this, for she would have done the same thing if he hadn't. They would part away from the world with one happy ending, though this could have been an entire life together in happiness, they could at least enjoy that little moment of love. The gentle, though passionate kiss was sure to stay on their minds and hearts after their death. But although they didn't want to break apart for a second, they were forced away by the natural need to breathe.

"Rarity…" Spike began. She listened. "I have yet one last present for you." Rarity was intrigued "Would you care to close your eyes for a second?" Rarity didn't even need to answer, she just did so.

Spike was fully conscious of what he was about to do. He would regret nothing now, except maybe lying. A single teleportation spell was already hard for him to perform. That's why he never really used it, unless really necessary; like now. But a dual teleportation was far too much for him. He could instead try teleporting her first, then himself. Only one problem though: the distance to the castle was way too much for him to support more than one spell. He was certain that once he teleported her, if he did teleport her to safety, he'd most likely collapse in the act. One way or another, there was only one thing Spike cared about, Rarity's safety.

"Please…" Spike hesitated to speak "apologize to Twilight for me…" he said. Rarity wondered what he meant. "I-I'll teleport _us_ back…" he lied.

In a green flash, Rarity disappeared from Spike's side, leaving the dragon to die alone. Once again he didn't regret this choice. He could feel like fainting after such tiring spell; but he was certain it had worked. The tiredness spoke for itself. Having fulfilled his heart's desire, he could leave the world and rest in peace. His rest began earlier, as his energy faded and the dragon passed out; his last memory being Rarity being safe. Death wouldn't be painful at all knowing she was safe and being asleep. The pain would turn into a simple dream that'd never end. His motionless and asleep body was just falling into its unavoidable end.

* * *

In the castle, White laughed evilly once he could no longer see Spike falling, at what he had just done; he was expecting to destroy the element of harmony along Spike's hopes. But things turned out better for him when Spike jumped! The cruel dragon couldn't be happier. Two birds one stone. Twilight noticed his guard being down, and despite the anger and concern that troubled her, she could free Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy from White's grasp; though nothing else could be done for the fallen lovers.

Rainbow Dash didn't waste one second, and flied full speed down the cliff, trying to catch Spike and Rarity. She stopped midway, for she found it useless as she couldn't spot them anymore. They must have already hit the ground. Defeated, she returned to the castle, anger flowing through her body instead of the usual adrenaline that helped her flying so fast.

"What's this?" White stopped laughing having realized the ponies were free. Also, a green flash had appeared before Twilight. It was Spike's teleportation spell, and after its quick appearance it vanished, revealing a perfectly safe Rarity.

"Ra-Rarity!" Pinkie Pie yelled, putting the mare into an embrace so tight that defied Rarity being 'safe'.

"Ho-how did you?" Twilight asked "Where's Spike?" she added.

"Last thing I heard was that he'd teleport us back…" she said before a tear came out of the corner of her eye. She understood what Spike had meant when he asked to apologize to Twilight for him the moment she could see him no more. "But before… he asked me to apologize to you… for him."

Twilight understood to the perfection what had happened. She did remember Spike saying 'her' instead of 'us'. She only hoped Spike wouldn't mean it so literally.

"Twilight!" Rarity spoke up, her tears hadn't abandoned her face though "Spike gave us another opportunity to bring harmony to this world" she said "Let's make his sacrifice count!" To be so confident, while being so terribly sad was confusing, but what she said was completely true. If they couldn't defeat White now, then Spike would have died for nothing. Rarity would have preferred to die herself if the result would have been the same. She would have preferred to die herself anyway.

She would have preferred to die herself.

* * *

Here you have it, as many of you reviewers wanted, a life-for-a-life ending. In other answers; yes, the manticore was bigger, and definitely more fiery than all those teen dragons together. i mean, heart of a lion, scorpion tail... what not of it isn't deadly?

Well i hope you liked this chapter which i hoped has made an interesting turn. (For me, it did; i had written something totally different but changed my mind a little while ago)

And once again, sorry for my delay.

See ya/ read ya

Freeda91


	10. The Black Dragon

**The Black Dragon**

The room was silent. Six ponies and a malicious dragon were engaged in a battle of stares; or so it seemed. Of all of them only one would have been the undeniable winner, the one who had just been given another chance, in spite of already losing something precious. But that didn't matter at all now, did it? All she could think of was not to waste this opportunity and, of course, accomplishing what the young dragon would have wanted. The only obstacle was a terrible king who sought destruction.

"Amazing" White whispered "Spike wasn't all that stupid after all if he was able to perform such spell under such circumstances" he then spoke out louder "But despite his bravery he is now dead!" the sinister dragon enjoyed clarifying that fact for the ponies "Or is he?" Nopony answered; he smiled, for he knew he was right. "And what else do we have?" he questioned no one "five regular old ponies with no hope of winning even with their precious elements, and a powerful unicorn who has hardly any magic left for another spell." He glanced at Twilight. The mare gritted her teeth furiously because… well, he was correct. "Now tell me my little ponies, who is to protect you now from my flames when you don't have any more shielding? You're cornered; there's absolutely no place you can run to, and absolutely no hope of surviving either".

It was a tough situation, Twilight knew. But even through adversity, they had resulted victorious several times. And she had the hope, that this wouldn't be the exception. Not when Spike had risked his life in making it that way.

"I envy you Twilight" The mare could hear this phrase coming from Rarity, but she found it hard to believe anyway. What reason was there to be jealous of somepony who had had trouble making friends. "One month with the princess has taught me many things" she explained "one of them is how to use my magic to defend myself; and the other one, that you are capable of performing an uncountable amount of spells."

White exhaled a small yet large-enough-to-be-deadly fireball at the now defenseless ponies. But apparently, they were far from defenseless. Just as the flames were about to reach them, a light blue force field swiftly protected the ponies from the terrible fire. Twilight looked in amazement at Rarity's horn, which was glowing intensely; resembling how difficult it was for the unicorn to keep it up; so hard was it for her that it lasted for hardly a couple of seconds. Luckily though, it protected them from the impact and thus, saved them.

"Wow, Rarity!" Pinkie Pie beamed in surprise "You're just like Twilight! Do you also have a weird obsession with reading?" Twilight pretended she didn't hear that.

"Are you okay Rarity?" the concerned unicorn asked. As a unicorn, she recognized the effort she had to do.

"I'm afraid that was it" Rarity whispered; not wanting either White or her friends to hear. Unluckily, despite her efforts to mute her conversation, her body betrayed her. She fell to the floor, nearly passing out. Everyone there realized she was even more exhausted than Twilight now.

"So you got your friends a couple of seconds" White minimized her actions "big deal. I don't think you can stop me again" As Twilight supposed and feared, White was already inhaling to release an even bigger amount of fire. It turned out Spike too, had only bought them a few spare minutes; and now there was absolutely no surviving. Everypony realized this, and as hard as it was, they had no option but to accept defeat. Surrounded by the remains of the last fire blast there was neither time nor place to run to. All they could do was to put themselves into a tight embrace, and hope for it to be quick. Finally, they could hear the fire burn. It felt cold, and hard; like it was a snake's skin… Just after Twilight found out the incoherence she looked up, and saw a familiar fat brown dragon that joined the embrace, and covered them from the fire.

"You okay friends?" Asked Chomp. Twilight just kept staring so it was Pinkie who ultimately nodded in response with a huge smile on her face.

"We were just in time dude!" said another familiar voice, coming from a familiar purple teen dragon "I told you to cut down on the emeralds. You've put on too much weight for your tiny wings!" said Ace.

"You two!" White shouted in confusion "How did you break free from my mind controlling spell? You two especially!"

"You're no longer our boss, boss!" Ace attempted to intimidate the dragon, failing miserably.

"Yeah!" added Chomp "we're too smart for your… uh… mind tricks."

"Or maybe the total opposite…" White muttered to himself.

"Or perhaps…" Twilight thought "it was my sealing spell that nullified White's controlling spell!" There was a small silence gap where everyone looked at her.

"Of all the options that clearly is the most accurate" White confessed.

"Where's Garble?" Rainbow asked, noticing the missing gang member.

"With Spike." Answered both dragons.

* * *

His sleepy eyes slowly opened in a shock. The last thing he remembered was falling for what seemed days to his death. Now, he could only gaze into a beautiful land only in his dreams he could imagine: Chocolate roads, gemstone lollipops, ice cream falling from the sky, and cotton candy trees with a quartz trunk! It was paradise! What would the first thing he'd do now, well; he didn't have time to think while devouring everything. But after he was a bit satisfied a small rather silly question arose.

"Where am I?"

He noticed something however. There was no one else there; only him and the delicious nature. He climbed top of a cotton candy tree expecting to increase his vision. He quickly regretted this idea when he found himself all sticky due to the sugar and also lonelier than before. He hadn't noticed yet, but when he looked at the sky, not only it was snowing ice cream, but also there was a strange firmament. He remembered quite clearly, that you either saw the sun in the day or the moon at night. This time however, he could see both. Perfectly separated by a thin orange line he thought to be the twilight; the sun on its cloudless sky and the moon on its deep blue starry sky.

After the weirdness vanished Spike was able to enjoy the beauty of the sky. Practically every color he could think of was there. It was like he had thought so before, a paradise. Just how in tarnation had he got there and why was he alone? This last thing was what worried him the most. He could only remember his last scene before passing out; falling. It was then that it struck him.

"This is paradise. I am dead!" Of course; now he remembered everything. They confronted White and they were losing even after such a dramatic effort from everyone. In the end he remembered jumping down the cliff; but he couldn't remember why.

"Quite a beautiful sight isn't it?" a deep, definitely masculine voice said "You have quite a delicious imagination. Too much sugar might be bad for you though."

Spike came back from his hard thinking and look to his side. He was surprised to see anyone after whatever time had gone by since he awoke. Then he became curious. He was expecting to see a familiar face, or at least that would have been the most relieving thing. Just who was this one standing next to him?

Spike analyzed him quickly, but still he wouldn't recognize him. He hadn't seen this being before; but he sure heard about him. The black dragon with dark blue spikes and claws; his eyes as well, reflected like crystals the moon he was staring at. His scales, even though they were black, sparkled like the night stars that would never stop shining. Just who was this dragon? It was King Nebula.

"K-k-king N-Nebula!" Spike reacted then proceeded to bow "your highness!" The royal dragon couldn't help but laugh.

"Hahaha, come on now, there's no need for such formalities." He smiled "Besides, I'm no longer a king." He was right; he was… dead.

"H-h-how come I can see you? Talk to you?" Spike asked, still shocked with amazement.

"Let's see if you can guess…" was the only thing the dragon replied. Spike sighed and his sadness took over him.

"My suspicions are right, aren't they? I'm dead." Spike replied sighing in a very defeated voice.

"My, my…" Nebula interrupted "You really are creative. How in your right mind did you come to that conclusion?" Spike was puzzled "My dear dragon you are to believe me when I tell you, that you are far from dead!"

"H-How can you tell?" Spike didn't understand his logic.

"Well… for starters it'd be a lot easier to talk to you if you were dead. But pointless". Oh that actually brought Spike another question.

"Now that you say it, why are you even talking to me? And if what you say is true, that I'm not dead, how can I talk to a dead dragon?"

"Please let me finish!" Spike immediately shut up "you do know I received life and magic from Princess Luna, do you?" Spike nodded "Mare of the night, guardian of dreams…" he seemed to pause a bit there. Perhaps he wanted Spike to deduce it? It wasn't too hard to figure it out though.

"You can enter other's dreams as well!" Spike realized. Nebula grinned at the fellow dragon. It felt weird somehow. The surroundings where changing. Instead of an eatable forest, now it was just a plain grassland with no trees at all; also the night seemed to be covering most of the space in the sky now, though the land was still as clear as noon.

"Don't be afraid. As I told you, it is only a dream. And it reflects your mind. By the time you understand how it works exactly, you'll also see why I wanted to talk to you." Nebula seemed to love riddles and puzzles. Why couldn't he just speak directly; it was really irritating.

"B-but you're dead. I don't think I'm imagining your entire personality either. Am I?" Spike questioned.

"You'll see Spike; physically, I am dead. However, spiritually, I have a few connections to the world of living. Through which I can get in touch with via their dreams. One of them is Luna, obviously. And you're the other one." Spike's confusion was deeper every time the black dragon opened his mouth to 'clear' those doubts. And boy was he tired of hearing all that nonsense. He was honored to be in the presence of a king, if it was actually a dream. But as far as he could tell, it was just his imagination speaking; although it did seem real.

"Wait…" had Spike heard him well? He was the other connection? "How can I be a connection?"

"Isn't it obvious by now?" Nebula pat the little dragon on the head "I'm your father, silly".

"Oh… now everything makes… WAIT WHAT?!" Spike's brain exploded. Just like a stomach is due to hurt from eating too fast, he suffered a migraine from all this sudden crucial information. Had he heard correct? Was the long dead king really his father? It made no sense… or did it?

"Is there something wrong, son?" Nebula asked the shocked dragon. Spike indeed took several seconds to react.

"B-b-but, t-that's not possible!" He objected. Though he had said that out loud he didn't really have any good reason to thinking that or not. He had little to no knowledge of where exactly he came from and all he did know was that Twilight hatched him. If this wasn't his imagination pulling his leg after all, then maybe this could be the only chance in his life to know who he was, and where he came from!

"Why do you think that?" Nebula asked in an extremely confident way "Go ahead and ask; the only way you're truly going to believe me is if I clear any doubt you have."

Spike took his time to think, because he really had no idea what to say. It had been all so… sudden. After a minute Spike had sorted out his mind and came up with a couple of questions; all of them hard to understand. "Well… for starters, how can you be my father if you died one thousand years before my birth?"

"Well…" Nebula sighed for a couple of seconds "Even though you've been raised by the princess you seem to know nothing about dragons! Didn't you know dragon eggs can stay thousands of years abandoned and still be able to preserve the life of the future hatchling?"

"Well I, uh… no." Spike rubbed the back of his head. "But how do you explain all our physical differences? I mean look at you! You're black and sparkle like a star. I'm just a plain purple dragon"

"But you do possess the beautiful green eyes of your mother" Nebula complimented. Spike felt a like uncomfortable by that; whether or not he was his father or not. "Anyway, you were given life the same way my brother and I were; by unicorn magic. Thus you acquired the colors resembling your 'unicorn mother'. Basic genetics".

Spike kept silent for a minute, having run out of arguments to contradict Nebula's claim. In the end he gave up and decided to follow Nebula's game and believe, even though not entirely, that what he was saying was the truth.

"It'd seem I've convinced you, just by the fact you haven't answered yet" he said noticing Spike's rather depressed expression. "Tell me Spike, why is it that you're sad?"

"It's not sadness." Spike replied, not entirely sure "At least that's what I think. It feels more like happiness; but then again, why am I so depressed?" Spike couldn't even understand his own feelings. He was certainly happy to have the chance to meet his father, but he'd soon feel horrible, for he'd never see him again. "But even though this moment will last forever, I suppose I'll never see you again…"

"Spike. That's something you'll never know, until it happens. I connected with you once; who's to tell you that won't happen again? I might have been able to channel you because you were magically exhausted and suffering a terrible issue. You were lost in what my brother has recently told you aren't you?" Nebula read Spike's mind like it was a book. It was certain now why he had decided to talk to him in the first place.

"He did say that I had my very own greed." Spike remembered. "Different from any other dragon he knew".

The scenery once again changed. This time all Spike could see was that he was floating in the nothingness. Nebula's color got disguised in the deep black, but his sparkling could tell Spike where he was; even if it wasn't important at all. He only needed his voice after all. Spike started to remember White's words clearly. How he mentioned he had a greed for jewels; only not ordinary jewels. He did get that, only he didn't see how loving Rarity could be considered his greed. It wasn't something bad at all, was it? He knew that if he was greedy he'd become a monster, but every time he was with Rarity, any possibility of that happening was null.

"Spike" Nebula brought him back from his deep thoughts "I too, experienced the same kind of greed" Spike hadn't told him yet what he felt; was he just guessing or was utterly sure what he was talking about? The latter was the most likely. "I don't know who this special dragoness is, but let me tell you. Once you realize she's the most important thing in the world for you, that's when you develop this greed that beats any other kind of greed. For it's the only one that doesn't poison neither your mind nor your heart".

"Then…" Spike brought up "Why is it considered a greed?" Nebula was speechless. After a while, he came up with an answer.

"Because it feeds a dragon's heart. In a good way though" he explained; Spike got a hint that Nebula wasn't quite sure himself by the way his shoulders twitched.

"Y-you don't really know don't you?" Spike asked. Nebula was shocked when his lies were discovered. Though he didn't even think Spike wouldn't see through them.

"No…" he corrected himself lowering his shoulders in embarrassment. "Truth to be told I found about it not long before I passed away, so I can't really tell its effects on the long term. And it's never been heard of, so I think I was the first one".

"But not the last one!" Spike interrupted "What about my mother? If you loved her so much then I bet…" he stopped himself as he saw the sadness in Nebula's eyes; he was afraid to ask what had happened, though he had an idea. He was an orphan egg after all.

"She… she was a victim during a civil dispute between dragons". Nebula replied as shortly and fast as possible. No doubt he wanted to block that memory from his mind.

"So we don't know the effects…" Spike whispered to himself. Though Nebula was clearly capable of hearing him. "But no matter if there's a downside to it. The fact of loving Rarity is far more compensating than any catastrophe that might happen because of it. And I'd be willing to risk my life for her a thousand times!" His spirit felt unbreakable now, like he could take on White just with it. And his heart, pure and strong. His magic he could tell was at its peak. He suddenly remembered Shining Armor and Cadance, when they repelled the Changeling army. Maybe that was the other upside to it; the least relevant one, compared to the single fact of loving Rarity. And now that he knew she loved him back, there was no way he'd let White do anything to her. He hadn't come all this way just to lose her to him.

"You seem different Spike" Nebula noticed it in his confident smile. In all the time he had been talking to him this was the first time Spike looked so sure of himself.

"I do feel stronger now…" Spike added.

"Motivation" Nebula cut him off taking the words right from his mouth "I believe that Rarity you speak of is who gave you this strength. I now have no doubt you will succeed in doing what needs to be done to take White's empire down" Nebula said. However, there was one last thing. "Spike…" He began "What will you do, or what do you think will happen once my brother has been defeated?"

"I suppose the dragons would stop attacking the ponies…" Spike replied; he hadn't given it any thought, Nebula deduced.

"Wrong." He interrupted "at most the dragons forced to obey him would stop. But there are also dragons that obey him just because they're okay with his ideas" Nebula lectured Spike on his brother's politics. He stopped for a minute and decided to get to the point. "In short, the dragons that want to join the ponies and the ones who want to separate from them will fight once again. And the events that began all this trouble may once again happen".

"But why would the dragons attack the ponies if they want to get away from them?" Spike asked.

"Because it's not that they want to get away from them" Nebula explained "Even though my brother came up with the idea of separating the two species completely, the dragons weren't simply going to leave. They are after all, greedy."

"So they want to live on their own, but on the ponies' expenses?" Spike confirmed his doubts. Nebula nodded and that matter was now clear.

"Hold on a minute!" Spike realized something interesting "If what you just said is true, then White's ideas were not separating both species, but actually forcing dragons to leave pony territory because some dragons were threatening the ponies!" Nebula didn't answer; he simply had all his attention on the smart little dragon in front of him.

"I suppose you're correct, Spike." Nebula rubbed the back of his head; at this point he was just as confused about the whole thing as Spike. "In the end the Dragon Treaty was decreed and all dragons; both the ones that wanted to leave and the ones that didn't, were forced out of the territory. They accepted this only because there had been recently discovered a land very rich in minerals, so the dragons' nature took them there.

"But apparently, their source is running out…" Spike guessed "That's why the dragons migrate so often!"

"Bingo!" Nebula smiled at his son "Well, there you have it. That would be what the whole problem would be based on" He resumed.

"Not exactly…" Spike took his time adding this last statement. "When I joined the last dragon migration there was hardly enough food for half the dragons there; I mean the full-grown ones. And on the other hand, I once stumbled across a dragon cave in an attempt to run away from my life, and found that single dragon had maybe three times what the migrants had".

"In other words, you're suspecting that some dragons have an excessive possession of jewels, which is natural, but the migrants only have a fraction of that boot for all of them?" Nebula repeated.

"Exactly." Spike said "and that's why most of the dragons find their food source to be scarce. Because of social disproportion." Spike explained; though he wasn't even sure what he was talking about. He just remembered one time that Twilight got interested in economy books and started reading them aloud because she forgot she had an inner voice.

"Then again" Nebula interrupted "That is very natural for dragons. The greedier they get the bigger, greedier and… lonelier they get. There's no way you can change their nature!"

Spike stood there for a minute thinking. They were back at the beginning; not a single step forward was given. They had analyzed and reanalyzed the situation several times, but it seemed to be an unsolvable problem. After all, it was changing the dragon's nature; that seemed the only answer and it was actually not possible… or was it? Spike remembered when White told him he had found a new kind of greed. His eyes then lit up, and seemed to resemble a happy and hopeful expression. Perhaps, White had the same idea. If they could change the dragons' greed into another, then maybe the food would suffice, and even perhaps peace could be achieved!

"I think I have the answer we were seeking for, dad". Spike was talking once again. Nebula was really happy of hearing the young dragon pronounce the word 'dad' with such pride. Spike had finally accepted the reality of what had just been experienced as the truth, and adopted it to answer all his questions.

"I believe I have arrived at the same conclusion as well." Nebula agreed. Spike couldn't tell whether he had read his mind with some sort of magic or he just thought alike, but he knew he was being honest.

"It seems that's all we had to talk about for now, huh?" Spike sighed in depression "I still wonder if I will be able to seek your aid again. Or perhaps just to talk to my dad." Spike couldn't see a thing. But because of this all his other senses were much sharper. He could feel the warm tear of both sadness and happiness coming from his eye and touching his thick scales.

"I'm sure you know who to talk to whenever you need my advice" Nebula informed him "until you can manage to talk to me on your own, perhaps we should channel with Luna's help".

"Thank you" Spike said "And good bye dad. I'll miss you". With this last sentence Spike could feel he lost consciousness and everything went pitch black for sure. No sparkling could be seen this time, and his other senses could detect nothing as well. No voice to hear except for one last thing:

"Time to wake up… Spike."

"Spike… Spike…"

"Wake up you lazy lizard!"

Spike slowly opened his eyes. He had indeed had a quite revealing dream hadn't he? Blinded from his sleepiness he couldn't tell who was in front of him, but his Garble's voice was unmistakable for him now. The small dragon sat by himself. If he had the energy to sit, he had the energy to stand up; that was a good sign.

"Where am i?" Spike asked his fellow dragon comrade who seemed to be distracted by something. Before Garble answered Spike looked around, to find himself in a forest, a couple feet away from a high mountain's foot. That was Canterlot's famous cliff.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen" Garble realized he was awake now "What did you ask?"

"Never mind, I know already" Spike replied before successfully standing up. He felt a little dizzy, and a tad weak, but standing was possible.

"High time you woke up Spike!" Garble teased the dragon "I've been waiting for about ten minutes! It's not that I expected an immediate recovery, but we're kind of in a tight schedule right now" Garble explained "Ace and Chomp are helping your friends right now; even if they can only make some time".

"Rarity!" Spike shouted remembering everything. Apparently he wasn't listening at Garble at all. But this time he turned at him "Is Rarity fine? Tell me she's fine!" he practically begged Garble. Not knowing her safety status was killing him.

"Relax dude." Garble calmed Spike down "She's okay. She's with all your friends." Spike's heart slowed down to a fairly regular beat. Only to be once again bumped out of his chest when a baby phoenix appeared right on his face.

"Ahh!" Spike screamed. He looked over at Garble who was laughing his scales off alongside the prankster phoenix.

"Y-you should have seen the look on your face! Hahaha!" Garble laughed "Nice one pewee!" they high fived their wings.

"What's he doing here? I thought I ordered him to go into hiding after the invasion"

"But he did" Garble interrupted "he showed up in Canterlot when I was dropping Rarity that night, and boy did he blind me! I hear it was yours, so I eventually came to like it."

"Really?" Spike asked "I thought he was still too young to blind anyone."

"You don't know about phoenixes as much as we do" Garble replied "like how drinking one's tear can instantly replenish your energy and vitality" Spike certainly didn't. But if that was the truth, he clearly knew of a somepony who needed one right away.

"You said Ace and Chomp are there?" Spike asked. Garble simply nodded "Weren't you supposed to be helping the ponies in the city?"

"That's something quite interesting that happened!" Garble began "You see, for starters Ace and Chomp were under White's brainwashing spell as well as the majority of the dragons attacking" He explained "Suddenly, they just stopped attacking and acted all normal again! So now not only we've a better defense, but also… how do I begin?" Garble wondered "Maybe you should see it for yourself.

The location where they were was far too practical. Not only they were hidden and safe from dangers, but they also were able to see a fairly good amount of the city and what happened there. Even though they were really small, Spike could see an amazing sight. An earth pony holding a sword galloped at full speed swung it just in time to defend a mid-size dragon from another by distracting him. The same thing happened for a full grown dragon that, going through a sea of flames carried a Pegasus away from the fire. And Spike just couldn't count the number of times he could see a unicorn casting a barrier, or healing fellow dragons! If there was ever any doubt of whether dragons and ponies could work together here was the decisive evidence that proved so.

'I can't believe my eyes' Spike thought 'they really are working together in perfect harmony!' Spike was happy; really happy. He only needed to survive one last encounter with White and he was completely sure that he would give the solution that'd bring peace once and for all. And if they didn't give him credit all he needed was to make them witness this marvelous teamwork!

"We're doubtlessly winning!" Spike completed.

* * *

Thank you very much for reading this; and even more for commenting! on that note, i realised most leave comments as guest asking questions. FYI i can't answer if you're guest *sob*.

I hope you enjoyed this crappy love story... which is still better than Twilight.


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